The French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) has just published its air transport price index for March and the first quarter of 2024. These passenger air transport price indices (IPTAP) are calculated using a methodology similar to that used to construct the INSEE consumer price index (CPI).
The DGAC IPTAP is built on the basis of air fares collected on 535 routes (origin, destination, carrier) by more than 70 carriers. All prices collected are for return journeys departing from France. They include all taxes, fees and surcharges.
The calculations are based on over 230,000 airfares collected each month from the Travelport reservation system and carrier websites. These fares are available for sale at the time of booking and are segmented according to the date and duration of travel, class of travel and type of ticket chosen.
More than 230,000 fares on 535 airlines analysed
They are weighted on a fixed annual basis, using traffic and survey data. However, the indices presented do not track changes in average ticket prices or average airline revenues.
From France to all destinations combined, this index reached 126.2 in March 2024, based on 100 for 2017. Over the first three months of the year, prices rose by 4.2% from mainland France. But this index shows significant variations from one segment to another.
Three segments show above-average growth based on 2017. The index for Asia-Pacific is the highest compared with 2017 at 138.3, followed by the European Union + Switzerland and the United Kingdom at 134.8 and domestic routes in mainland France at 131.7. By contrast, the index for sub-Saharan Africa was 93.8 and for Latin America 99.2.
Prices fall on intercontinental routes
Over the first quarter, fare levels rose sharply on domestic routes, by 28.7% year-on-year. It also remained strong on routes to the European Union/Switzerland/United Kingdom at 11.6%. On the other hand, prices are down on intercontinental routes.
Year-on-year, the index shows a decrease of 2.7% with a sharp fall in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Prices fell by 6.8% and 4.9% respectively. This decline is due to greater supply to these continents - particularly to Asia, where capacity is once again rising sharply. Finally, the continued opening of new routes to North America has also led to a slight fall in prices. Fares fell by 1.8% in the first quarter of 2024 compared with 2023.
