Its hard to see sometimes where the cheap flights are coming from. For instance today i was reading a piece in the Times about how virgin are effectively offering flights to New York for just £15! Alas its not just as good a deal as it sounds as this deal as so often will prove to be does not include taxes. The final price of the trip was £215 which is a still a great deal is a far cry from the £15 they are quoting. Where do all of these extra charges come from? Most of the problem comes from the fact you are entering America which has some of the highest airport taxes in the world. You have to pay everything from immigration fees to security charges to protect against the increased security risk as US airports.
The other big factor is the fuel surcharge which i don’t really understand in some respects. Ie i know this is the price the airline has to pay for jet fuel but its not like its an optional extra is it? I mean are we supposed to book the flight without any petrol? You could say the same about the whole breakdown of the price structure since its not like you can opt out of any of it, but at the same time it is interesting to see where the final price of the flight actually comes from. Its amazing to think though that for this virgin flight that they are actually only getting £15 per passenger! Maybe they should think about running it on diesel instead.
