Are long-haul flights getting more pricey?

[Stokey]

Wondering if anyone else has noticed this?

Have been tracking flights to a couple of places for Easter - Sri Lanka & Thailand - and they're stubbornly staying around the £1,000 mark which is a lot for a family of 4! I've been tracking since September but there's very little movement.

I feel like BA hasn't restarted lots of its direct flights since the pandemic, particularly to Asia, and that means there are less options. I'm happy to fly other airlines ( though do have BA points) but don't want to spend too much time in layovers as holidays are short.

Not particularly recently but certainly a lot more than they used to be

in terms of direct flights to Asia that is true (though not just a BA thing) but I think the main reason for that is because of so much competition from the likes of emirates/etihad/Qatar- not direct but when they are able to offer so many flights it’s hard for other airlines to keep a few flights a week viable.

also direct flights to certain parts of Asia are difficult/impossible because most airlines can’t fly over Russian airspace atm. Having to fly the longer way round will be more expensive too

Cost of fuel gas increased? Everything has gone up in price. Short haul flights too. If people are happy to pay they'll charge it.

Yes! Asia in particular, was looking at Japan a few months ago and they were £900 and I searched price history and that price seemed fairly consistent. LA however were really cheap by contrast c£400.

After Covid I found that long haul flights had gone up a lot and they don't seem to have come back down much.

Flying Europe to Asia is definitely more expensive now that most airlines can’t use Russian airspace to get there. It means the flights are longer and therefore use more fuel and are more expensive than they used to be.

Our return flights to Japan next Easter were eye-watering. £1900pp

Yes!
we have flown to Australia about 4 times since they opened up after covid and it is sooo expensive these days.
gone are the 800-900 fares it’s all minimum 1200 but mostly more with decent airlines.

Everything has gone up including flights.

^^

Heathrow-Tokyo is probably one of the most extreme example of how things have changed.

That was typically 11 hrs 30 plus/minus, routing over Scandinavia and then pretty much along the northern Russia coast before heading more inland towards Novosibirsk and onwards to Japan...

Nowadays the more typical route runs over Turkey and on eastbound from there, which has added a heck of a lot of miles to the route, typically 2 hours plus to the flight time and certainly thousands of dollars to the fuel and operating costs for each flight.

Other routes to the far east out of the UK/western Europe won't be effected quite as much but nevertheless a lot of miles have been added to a lot of routes.

Obviously the Russia factor doesn't apply to all Long Haul routes but fuel is slightly pricy ATM and just maybe the airlines may be thinking the market will support the higher fares.

The JAL HND-LHR flights are actually flying the other way around the globe at the minute. Today’s flights from Haneda flew over Alaska, Canada and Greenland to Heathrow. It’s a lot of extra miles.

Jet fuel has gone up, salary has gone up, the cost of heating offices has gone up. It is no wonder flight prices have increased.

Wondering about this as may be booking long-haul tickets (Cape Town) for Christmas 2024 in the new year and not sure what to expect. I haven't booked longhaul since before COVID .

Yep, I've seen BA doing similar.

LHR-HND they go eastwards over Turkey etc ...but for the return flight nowadays they often (always?) leave HND and head north eastwards as you describe over Alaska/Canadian Arctic etc...

That'll be down to the Russia closure and then superimposed on top of that the need to get the best tailwinds/least headwind winds at altitude..

Definitely, the in-laws live in Oz, cost us £8,000 for 4 tickets to go last summer, which is double what we paid in 2019. Agree with earlier posters not helped by the Russian airspace ban as less route options are available.

Gosh those Oz and Japan prices really are a lot..

I subscribe to Jack's flight club and you do get some cheaper flights advertised there but they tend to not be in school holidays and are often with airlines that I don't feel comfortable travelling with.

British Airways usually have a sale starting on Boxing Day, so it might be worth waiting to see if they do so again this year.