Roatan Airfares

[DandyDon]

Yeah it'll vary a lot with routes and what their competitors are doing. Fun game.

 

[DeputyDan]

I'm going to COCO VIEW in May, 2011.

Have been watching airfares since October and they have not been less that $743 (for my schedule).

Still watching!!!

 

[10traveler10]

Has anyone heard any more rumors about Southwest starting service to Honduras and Belize? Just wondering.......BigGulp

 

[georoc01]

Well, Southwest is starting Caribbean travel with its purchase of Airtran. Whether they add more flights and from what hub would be the bigger issue.

 

[Doc]

I always read these threads with great empathy.

We just picked up an RT airfare ORD>RTB for over Easter time use.
I was advised that fares overall will be doing nothing but go up after January 1st.

In that Roatan is only a toad hop South of Cozumel, yes- you gotta wonder why we get hosed.
There's a lot of reasons for it, chief among them that it isn't Cozumel

Here's how we got hosed:

FARE INFORMATION
Fare Breakdown

Airfare: $559.00 USD
U.S. Federal Transportation Tax: 32.20
U.S. Security Service Fee: 7.50
U.S. Customs User Fee: 5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee: 7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee: 5.00 (Agricultural Inspection)
Fuel Surcharge: 270.00
U.S. Passenger Facility Charge: 10.50
______________________
Per Person Total: $896.70

The airfare you paid on this itinerary totals: $559
The taxes, fees, and surcharges paid total: $337

So, just about 50% was added to the fare because the airlines want to charge you extra for fuel
that any sane person would figure is represented in the ticket price... to begin with.

The Fuel Surcharge is what is going to be bumping the ticket price in early 2011.

24-Dec-2010 cost per gallon of Jet Fuel was $2.94 Jet Fuel Price Monitor

from 1 week ago, up 3.3%
from 1 month ago, up 9.6%
from 1 year ago, up 26.3%

Looks like those "Fuel Surcharges" will likely total $21,000,000,000.00 in 2011.

Warning: Mathematics Ahead

A full plane with 180 passengers? An Airbus320 (TACA runs them, too) burns 0.377/mpg or 2.65 gal/mile.

Roatan is about 3,800 rt miles for the above trip, so that's using about 10,700 gallons of fuel, give or take.

If you do the math, all 180 of us aboard that flight- we'll be paying $270 each~ that's $48,600 extra to fly that plane as a fuel surcharge.

That comes out to us buying them 16,530 gallons of gas... as a "surcharge".

They come out ahead by 5,830 gallons or $17,140 on the deal.

Fuel Surcharge.

What a concept.

And all I wanted was a crappy airline meal.

 

[lionfish-eater]

I have to fly through Houston, which is about half way. You would think that if I only did the houston leg the fare would be about half. WRONG. You think the fare would be twice as much from calgary or seattle. WRONG. The airlines have determined that people will pay between 800 to 900 for airfare and that is what they charge regardless of the mileage of destination. The fares are about the same to bonaire, cayman, turks,etc. The airlines are for profit businesses and will charge as much as the market will pay. We are to blame for going along with the program. The problem is that a addict will pay whatever the dealer demands to get their fix. There is little choice when you are a dive addict and crave the experience. Food and mortgage or diving vacation, tough choice?

I never thought she was serious when she said she would leave me if I took one more trip. Well at least that's one less thing I have to worry about now.

 

[DandyDon]

The airlines have not priced fares respective to miles since deregulation I don't think, since before many divers were born. It's all about Demand, Competition, and to some extent Supply. If a few hundred people seem interested in traveling to Roatan for most feasible travel dates, then Continental, Delta, TACA and maybe others in some markets will vary fares to compete for the possible profits, if they have the planes, crews, and support to fly them - but the Supply portion is easily enough adjusted generally.

If they cut prices too much, the don't make enough profits to satisfy the stockholders;

If they maximize profits too much, travelers will think of alternate ideas, different destinations, cruises, driving to the coasts;

And there is always a multitude of unseen and unpredictable possibilities, i.e. sudden fuel cost changes, political unrest, storms, whatever.​

This is not really so bad tho. I should have mailed my passport off for renewal sooner, but since I didn't - I have to hold onto it until my daughter's family completes their cruise next month. I'm the only one with a passport and if an emergency occurred, it'd be pretty sad for me to be unable to fly down because my passport was off for renewal. It doesn't expire until June, so I can fly to Mexico, but not Honduras. Looking at March tho...

Lubbock to Roatan for $686 if I want to fly on Thursday and/or Mondays. I have paid almost that much to get to Cozumel at times...

At times, depending on the routes and who is competing, or maybe how much the airline wants to encourage trans Texas travel, it can be cheaper from Lubbock thru Houston to a destination than originating in Houston. Usually not.

Houston to RTB for $593 up, any day if you don't mind TACA's round about way of getting there, slightly cheaper on Saturdays oddly enough...

So we can moan and whine, but it's ain't all that bad.

Still, it would help if the nation would buy a few jets as their contribution to TACA and make flight more competitive. Currently, the Honduran airline involved owns 3 smaller props.

 

[Doc]

Still, it would help if the nation would buy a few jets as their contribution to TACA and make flight more competitive. Currently, the Honduran airline involved owns 3 smaller props.

A snowstorm in Tegus would be more likely.

For many years, I have known people in the airline business down there, like Federico (TACA) and Mr. Bill. (Caribbean Air) I have also known people in the Government business. They all know each other pretty well, too.

The Honduran airline you mention (currently called Islena ?) has had a rather incestuous history with TAN-SAHSA (The last Honduran National Flagged Carrier) and then TACA (The Ecuadorian carrier).

In 1994, I was standing in Houston with a SAHSA (Stay at home, Stay alive) ticket to RTB clenched in my hand at the very moment SAHSA went belly up. SAHSA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TACA suddenly appeared, "out of nowhere" and put us on one of their planes. Like magic it was, I wanna tell'ya. The very (first and) last thing they have ever done on time.

Since that time, the Government had offered Mr. Bill the Honduran National Flag to be painted on his tail-fin. He had a few LETs and DC-3's. He looked at the numbers- they made sense, but was scared-off by the 2 ton elephant (TACA) which wasn't in the room, but just next door.

Later, he was enticed into financing the sale of the airline, just to see it run into the dirt by the buyers, likely~ they were well camouflaged agents of a competing carrier.

TACA entered into an interline agreement with Continental in IAH, and tried like hell to keep CO out of town, but they were feeding CO so much business from Central Americans, there was no dissuading Continental. CO got in there before American, the obvious competitor~ which ran parallel routes through Belize. AAL didn't want to screw with the TACA connections, but in contrast, CO had been making smartest-guy-in-the-room decisions for so many years, it was a natural.

TACA took a few minutes to squish (like a bug) the upstart SOL airlines. SOL's big mistake was accepting the Flag. (AeroHonduras)

The airlines, just like Lionfish-Eater says, will squeeze whatever they can out of the airfares. This seemingly unrelated act has been the single greatest cause to the economic distress of Roatan.

For a while, TACA was offering resort owners various enticing credit options for bundled resort stays and airline tickets. They were making it very easy for resorts to get in over their heads by enticing them with ticketing plans and "easy credit". If you stepped back and looked, the airline was attempting to go vertical in their overall marketing plan- like Canadian Pacific tried with Banff. Luckily, a very few resorts bit.

As with most things in Honduras- nothing is as it first seems. They are very big on plausible deniability- very easy when you control all of the records and paperwork. Honduras is essentially owned and operated by several very wealthy concerns (not all that different than the US). Down there in that environment, airlines (and their owner families) still represent huge, cubic, metric dollars.

DandyDon- I think your posts here about price snarking the airlines is really useful. Keep up the digging.

 

[Marral]

Travel to Roatan has generally been a challenge, but this year, a Canadian charter, Sunwing, is flying non-stop. We're going on Feb 7 (through Feb 14) from Toronto, and will be staying at Reef House Resort. When we booked, we got airfares for about $750 ea (Canadian, which these days is about at par with US). I just checked Sunwing, and the same flights we're taking are now going for $1200.

I hope others will take advantage of the direct/non-stop so we don't lose it!

 

[stevep4444]

Right now you can get a return flight from Ft Lauderdale to SPS for about $160 tax in through Spirit if you are a bit flexible with your travel. I can get a return ticket from Detroit to Lauderdale for $120. I believe the bus from SPS to Ceiba is about $50 return and the ferry is about $55 return so all in all about $400 and a little time and adventure could me to the Island and home. I believe the Taca flight from SPS to RTB is also an option but doesn't match up to the flight time very well coming into SPS from Lauderdale. Usually I fly direct but I am going to try the scenic route this time. Anyone with experience on this route please feel free to provide some advice.