日本財団 図書館


03 AVIATION

 

Advance purchase discount for airfares

This is a system for offering discounts from regular airfare when a customer reserves a domestic flight in advance. The deregulation in December 1994, aimed at diversifying and expanding discount airfares, made it possible for airline companies to give up to a 50% discount off the regular fare by simply notifying the Ministry of Transport in advance, rather than seeking prior approval from the Ministry. In response, each airline company started offering advance-purchase discount for reservations for flights on May 8, 1995, and onwards. Initially, up to 25 to 36% discount was offered for reservation made at least 4 weeks in advance. At the same time, companies allowed no changes to flights, charged cancellation fees worth 50% Of the discounted fare, and imposed restrictions on the number of seats subject to such discounts. The discount rates and conditions have since diversified. Today, advance-purchase discounts are widely used by air passengers as one of established airfare discounting systems in Japan.

 

Deregulation of domestic airfare

Since 1986, efforts have been made to adopt a more flexible system for regulatory procedures, airfare setting and discounting fares. Previously, airfares were determined for each route based on its costs. In 1990, a new system was introduced in which standard costs, calculated from the distance of each route, are used as benchmarks. In 1995, the system was modified to make the standard costs the upper fare limit of each route. In the setting of fares, airlines had been originally forced to obtain administrative approvals for any fare from the Ministry of Transport, including discount fares. A new discount system was introduced in 1990 for package tours. In 1994, the Ministry changed the regulation to allow airlines to offer up to 50% discounts after merely notifying the Ministry in advance. In 1995, discounts of up to 25% were placed totally at the discretion of airline companies. The current requirement to obtain approvals for fare changes is scheduled to be abolished in February 2000, making it necessary only to file airfare tables to the Ministry in advance.

 

 

 

前ページ   目次へ   次ページ

 






日本財団図書館は、日本財団が運営しています。

  • 日本財団 THE NIPPON FOUNDATION