Did they cheer too soon about cheap flights? The government had to stop an air revolt in the north. The result was a new flight rebellion. The intention was to help businesses and local communities. Now many believe that tourists and pensioners are subsidized, while businesses and patients have to bleed. First, we have to turn the clock back a little over a year. Then FLY pissed off Northerners complained about high flight prices. Rightfully so, many would say. A family that was going to visit family in the south had to shell out astronomical sums. And they received an answer from a government that was more than happy to help the districts. The best intentions Now a well-intentioned price cut by the politicians has led to a new flight rebellion in the north. Business despairs. The health service is concerned. The mayor calls the new flight offer “a little hell”. This spring, the politicians halved the maximum price on the so-called FOT routes. These are non-profitable stretches where the small, green Widerøe planes are in reality planes for trains, trams, buses and boats. The government has spent the last year bragging about cheaper flights. It was supposed to be a happy affair and a show of hands for the districts. But outside the country, the reactions are characterized by anything but joy and gratitude. Everyone is happy about the price cut and is reluctant to criticize it, but … The new tender was a little hell for us, says mayor Wenche Pedersen (Ap) in Vadsø. According to a unanimous municipal council, this Vadsø community goes back several decades in time. Both people and business describe this as demanding and unsustainable, says mayor Jonny Finstad (H) in Vest-Vågøy. Like others in Lofoten, he has been concerned about friction between the local population and tourists. In Helgeland, mayor Peter Talseth (Sp) in Alstahaug talks about burst capacity and major challenges for patient travel and business. Although they cheer the intention of cheap prices. He pointed the arrow at the airline company Widerøe. In the far north of Trøndelag, mayor Amund Hellesø (Ap) describes the flight offer as far from satisfactory for a growing business community. He is one of many local politicians who are working hard to change this. Business also despairs. It is far too difficult to get a seat on the planes, according to NHO Nordland. It helps little with a lower price when the planes are full and there are fewer departures, sigh local politicians. Widerøe himself has partially refuted this. They themselves claim that only 6 out of 10 places are full, although they acknowledge “that some routes are more crowded than before” and that there are bottlenecks. Because the empty airplane seats are by no means evenly distributed. Ingratitude is the world’s wages, the government might say. But their love affair obviously has some unforeseen consequences. This is some of what is being reported: Worse to get a seat at short notice: The flights are fuller than before and are sold out earlier. This particularly applies to attractive routes in the morning and afternoon. Some sections are particularly vulnerable: This applies to routes that are important for onward flights, or places that are particularly attractive to tourists, such as Lofoten. Flights have become affordable: between Bodø and Lofoten, the maximum price is NOK 702. A pensioner pays half price (NOK 351) for a full flex ticket which can be canceled at any time. Between Kirkenes and Vadsø, a ticket costs just NOK 316 (NOK 158 for pensioners). Fewer good departures: In return, some places have received a worse route offer. In Vadsø, a situation is described where you have to “fly via half of Finnmark” to get out of the country. The result? Full flights. And what is an absolutely essential flight offer for people traveling to work or to hospital is now being displaced by tourists and pensioners. It’s the economy, stupid Why does it happen? Very simple psychology. The tickets have become so cheap that you are almost a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity. Pensioners can fly for a few hundred Swedish kroner. You have to go yourself to find a cheaper way to transport yourself from a to b. Asian tour operators occasionally book entire flights. In any case, they can cancel the seats they do not need. People say that they book tickets to be safe, because they can only cancel them again. And you don’t have to be either a rocket scientist or an aircraft analyst to understand what happens when too many people think like that. In the past, the airline has used price as a tool to get people onto more unfavorable departures, such as in the middle of the day or late at night. When the price is the same if you travel in prime travel time, people do it. And it favors those who order well in advance. As vacationers and those who are just going to visit an old aunt. Which can be important enough. Those who cannot plan are people who have to travel for work or to and from appointments at the hospital. Are we subsidizing foreign tourists in a big way? Can’t you just set up more planes? You can certainly do that, but it is expensive. The state is already spending more than NOK 2 billion on this offer. The state would probably like to point to Widerøe, which won the tender and has a monopoly. Widerøe will certainly adjust the route offer somewhat, but will probably say that the combination of taxes and fees the airlines pay in combination with the new maximum prices means that they lose money on flying. They are particularly irritated by the special Norwegian airline passenger tax. Setting up larger aircraft is not an easy solution either. Many airports have short runways where you can only take down small planes with very limited seating capacity. This is transport policy’s version of the tragedy of the commons. Because everyone cheers for cheaper flights. But they don’t like the consequences. And the ferry queue seems like several long years It has a parallel to the introduction of free ferries. It is a very good offer for islanders who are completely dependent on the ferry. But in particularly tourist-prone places, it leads to far more traffic. Like a small plane, a ferry is a limited resource. The result is endless ferry queues, which both permanent residents and businesses have to stand in. For example, many foreign tourists have been registered who take the trip via the island communities of Værøy and Røst, in order to get on to Lofoten for free. Which delays trailers with fresh fish to move on quickly. Storting representative Bård-Ludvig Thorheim uses this as an example when he asks how the government will ensure that permanent residents and local businesses get a place on ferry connections and flights in Nordland. … and you think to yourself, where was I yesterday? He will certainly get the answer that the government will consider a so-called Spanish model. This means a resident discount on flights, which you have in Gran Canaria. And maybe also a ferry? Why this was not considered before halving flight prices and making the ferries free is a good question. They can’t say they weren’t warned. The counter-arguments have been there. Today, this seems to be driven by a short-term desire to please (and fulfill election promises) rather than by being very thoughtful. And that shows public transport’s dilemma in a nutshell: If you make the offer better and cheaper, then demand increases. Today, the government spends billions on a strengthened offer for the rural areas, without getting much else than their own mouths. State Secretary Bent-Joachim Bentzen admits that the effect of the spending is not as expected, and that they have to look at the entire interior. The summer could get worse While the politicians are dressing up, the local population is steeling itself for what, thanks to the weak krone and heat waves in Europe, could be the tourist summer of all time in the north. Already in early June, a traffic record has been set in Lofoten. Perhaps it would not have been so stupid if the politicians were more loyal to their own investigative instructions? It says in black and white on the government’s own website that “a lack of investigation increases the risk of decisions being made that cannot be implemented, that have undesirable effects or that involve a waste of society’s resources”. No matter how good the idea may be. Published 26.06.2024, at 07.09
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Cheered for cheap flights. Now they fear chaos this summer – Statement
