Skyrocketing fuel prices are adding more pressure on B.C.’s already struggling travel sector as it’s trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prices at the pumps in Metro Vancouver hit 209.9, as the cost continues to climb.
Now, as residents prepare to travel over spring break or look forward to summer vacations, experts are warning that airline prices may have to go up 15 to 20 per cent to accommodate for the pandemic pressures and now the rising cost of fuel.
“What’s going to happen is the airlines can’t charge more for a ticket that they’ve already sold so they’re just going to have to eat that cost,” Jim Scott, managing director of the Royal Pacific Consulting Group, told Global News.
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“What they might do is consolidate flights so that the flights are fuller, so you may see some people getting notifications in the mail that their flights have been changed, so that they can get the passenger load factor up higher so they can offset their higher costs.”
BC Ferries told Global News it has no plans to raise prices amid the surging fuel costs, although it did implement a one per cent fuel surcharge on tickets on March 1.
There have also been calls for the B.C. government to step in and cap the prices at the pump but Premier John Horgan said last week that while the province is monitoring the situation closely, there are no plans to do anything at this time.
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