[Sust-mar] Fwd: Price Surge of $300 for Bicyclists by Airlines

[Lis van Berkel]

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: ibike at ibike.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2006

Corporate Collusion Leads to Price Jumps of $300 for Flying Bicyclist.

While some of the airlines are talking green, they are simultaneous working to
undermine green choices by their customers!

In the dark of winter, the airlines have effectively increased cost of a
trans-Atlantic ticket for a bicyclist by as much as $300.  If the base ticket
price is $900 that is over a 30% increase in the cost of travel.

Prior to January of 2007 most airlines let bicycles on trans-Atlantic and
trans-Pacific flights fly free, in lieu of one piece of baggage (as long as
they were within the two-bag limit and underweight limit of 30kg). Early in
2007, most of the world’s airlines seem to have entered into collusion and
simultaneously changed their baggage regulations for bicycles. By February of
2007 the regulations, for most airlines, call for all bicycles being charged on
these flights.  The charges range from $80 to $160 each way -- $160 to $320
roundtrip!

It is not a weight issues because many of their lean bicycling customers plus
their bikes are going to weigh less than many of their other customers without
any bags.  It is not a size issue because today’s modern airplanes can, and
have, easily accommodated bicycles.  And, if is a bottom line issue, the
airlines are delusional, because there aren’t enough bikes flying to make a
visible difference in there revenue.

The work around for the bicyclists is not as easy as renting a bike at their
destinations.  There are very few rental bikes available in the world that are
suitable for serious environmentally-friendly, multi-day, long distance, bike
touring.

For more information on flying with a bicycle see
http://www.ibike.org/encouragement/travel/bagregs.htm.

==========================

International Bicycle Fund - www.ibike.org
Promoting sustainable transport and understanding worldwide.
A non-profit organization. Donations are welcome.

An easy way to support IBF doing what you do anyway is to do searches through
www.goodsearch.com and list “International Bicycle Fund” as the charity.


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