British Airways offers lower fares
British Airways (BA) launched on April 20 a revolutionary changed tariff for its European flights, which is considered as a direct challenge to low-cost carriers. A one-way fare for flights between Sofia and London’s Heathrow Airport is now sold for as low as 80 euro, which is 170 euro less than the one-way ticket offer has been up to now, BA’s country manager for Bulgaria, Emil Delibashev, told reporters. The serious drop results not only from lowered tariffs in general, but also from the fact that BA has not sold one-way tickets, so far, for certain classes of its bookings. The company has also cut its prices for return fares by an average of 60 euro and now customers can buy a return ticket for the Sofia-London flight for 160 euro (90 euro less than the previous cheapest offer), depending on the time schedule and availability on the respective flight. The tickets are issued for a one-year period of validity and no longer require a mandatory Saturday stayover, as was the previous arrangement. Delibashev said that BA would cut all non-changeable economy tickets, meaning passengers needing to change their schedules at short notice would be able to do so until midnight the day before they were due to leave, although changes will incur a fee of 50 euro. “The change in our pricing policy was necessitated by a number of challenges starting with the unprecedented growth in competition, especially from low-cost carriers, which we call low-service airlines,” Delibashev said. In his words, BA’s idea is to make flights much more accessible. Along with an expected increase in the number of sold fares, the company’s Bulgarian office will seek to make BA’s flights a possible alternative for any passenger who has plans to fly to London. “This is not a short-term marketing trick, but a long-term commitment to our clients to offer low fares every day of the year,” Delibashev said. BA said it would continue to provide full service to customers booking inexpensive tickets. Unlike the low-cost airlines, BA will not charge extra for food and drink onboard or for checked luggage. The new BA fares include all taxes and fuel surcharges, but there is a charge for passengers who do not book online. This does not apply for Bulgaria’s office of the company, however, because all bookings there are made only online. BA also launched new unprecedented tariffs for its Club Europe business class for passengers willing to fly to London’s Gatwick Airport. The new business class fares start from 362 euro, without the airport fees, which is a serious drop compared to the so-far-offered lowest fare of 1339 euro without the airport charges. “We are happy to have the opportunity to offer the very attractive fare of 80 euro for a one-way ticket to London and the unprecedented price for the business class. We are certain that this is a positive change for our loyal customers, who have made the Sofia-London flight very successful,” Delibashev said. In late March, BA launched its twice-weekly Varna-London flights to Gatwick Airport. From June 5 these flights will be four a week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday). According to Delibashev, the new route to the Black Sea city has proven to be successful and planes are always full. The company expects increased interest on the Varna flights in the heat of the summer season.
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