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Originally Posted by cobraboy
I don't know about potential corruption, but I will say this:
I have flown my private aircraft from FL to POP 9 times the last 18 months. Since the time of my first flight, I have seen the fees and costs (not including fuel) go up so ridiculously high that I have chosen to fly commercial.
My last flight, excluding fuel (which was over $US 5.00 a gallon for Avgas-and I buy 65-70 gals. at a time), the fees came to over $500 for a 7 day stay. Some of this were "normal" tourist fees, but MOST were not.
In a supply and demand world, the price has driven me from the market. It's just not worth it to fly there privately anymore.
I normally fly with 2 others, for a total of 3 passengers. In 10/2004, the total cost per person for a week was around $375 RT. Last November, the total cost per person was $550. For $375, the convenience was worth it. At $550, it's not.
I fly to SD on 2/21 for $250 RT on Spirit.
In my case, the DR loses considerable revenue because they priced me out of the market of consumption of aviation services.
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Don't worry too much.
As is often with capitalism (not the best economic system, but compared to what?), prices will increase until demand drops to such levels that losses begin to be incured. Once that occurs, everything that can be done to cut prices will be done and the consumer will win in the end.
The only thing that can and always has distorted this has been government intervention. Plenty of virtually bankrupted enterprises kept alive around the world due to government intervention. From Alitalia to the EDES of DR, virtual bankrupted enterprises being kept alive by government intervention.
-NALs