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- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sun4nl!cwi.nl!dik
- From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
- Newsgroups: rec.railroad
- Subject: Re: European Air Deregulation
- Message-ID: <8495@charon.cwi.nl>
- Date: 1 Jan 93 11:16:58 GMT
- References: <sam.31bs@terapin.com>
- Sender: news@cwi.nl
- Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
- Lines: 28
-
- In article <sam.31bs@terapin.com> sam@terapin.com (Sam Lewit) writes:
- > European railfans correct me if I'm wrong, but I read in the paper today that
- > starting Jan 1 the major airlines will become deregulated. According to the
- > article there has already been severe price dropping on major european markets.
- > The article goes on to say that some industry observers predict one of the most
- > expensive air travel markets is turning into a flying bargain basement on Jan
- > 1.
- I doubt it.
- >
- > Lufthansa started with price cuts of about 50 percent on fares to Germany from
- > around Europe. KLM, British Airways and SAS quickly matched the fares. KLM
- > announced ROUND TRIP fares from Amsterdam to major German airports of $104 ($52
- > each way!).
- Yeah. But it appears to be extremely difficult to really get tickets at
- those prices!
- >
- > This is great news for european travels, but what does that mean for Europe's
- > fantastic rail passenger services? Will europeans still pay more to train when
- > the plane is cheaper and faster (and arguably safer?). It almost seems
- > inevitable that what has happened in the US what with fuel prices cheaper than
- > bottled water, and airfares MUCH cheaper than rail travel (in almost all
- > corriders), will happen in Europe. Any opinions? I hope I'm wrong.
- I think you are wrong. If the airlines go on with this most will go
- belly-up, just as many US airlines did. (Makes one wonder how Lufthansa is
- able to start this with an expected deficit of about 1 billion DM last year.)
- --
- dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland
- home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl
-