Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, has written a blog post “setting the record straight” after a public spat with ACI-Europe over a report that airfares have risen more slowly than inflation.
He said: “Last week IATA revealed that airfares purchased for travel commencing in Europe (from and within) in June 2023 were, on average, 16% higher than in June 2019. That is about four percentage points below the cumulative 20% increase in the European Consumer Price Index over the same period.
“We released this information to correct speculation in Europe that airfares were increasing well above the rate of inflation. It was surprising, therefore, to see ACI-Europe almost immediately attack their customers and claim that European airfares for the peak July-September 2023 period were 38-47% more expensive than in 2019.”
‘Setting the record straight’
Walsh continued: “Data does not lie. It is unequivocal that the fares paid by consumers for travel in June 2023 were, on average, 16% higher than the fares paid in June 2019 for travel originating in Europe. We even ran the same analysis for July-September and came up with the same 16%.
“So, how could ACI-Europe come to such a different view? From what I can see, ACI Europe used data from a source that scrapes websites for airfares on offer.
“IATA’s data, however, was calculated from fares reported for real tickets purchased by real travellers. This is what matters when tracking airfare inflation, not what consumers might have paid. But the gap between the two is a clear indicator that travellers are sufficiently savvy to find competitive prices for their travel needs in a transparent market.”
Walsh concluded: “I am not interested in a tit-for-tat dispute with ACI-Europe on data. But I am determined to ensure that numbers presented in the context of a policy debate are correctly understood. Proper policy outcomes need relevant inputs.”
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