The days of affordable flights may soon be over now that social distancing is becoming a norm.

As new regulations requiring the service providers to leave the middle seats empty are being looked at, airlines can no longer pack as many customers as possible into tight spaces to reduce the cost of flights and make more money.

And we could be the ones who will be paying for that.

Flight tickets might cause more

New Straits Times reported that local airline companies such as Malaysia Airlines and Malindo Air revealed that the flight ticket price increase could be more than 50 per cent, as suggested by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

According a report by IATA, social distancing will cut the capacity of a plane to 62 per cent, which is way below the 77 per cent that an airline will require to make enough money to break even.

Fares will need to be increased by 43 to 54 per cent for most airlines to cover cost, which could mean that the increase of fares may be way higher than what customers are used to.

The expectation of the hike in flight prices is subjected to travel restrictions, social distancing, increased freqency of sanitisation and other factors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.


For now, we will have to wait and see if the prices of flights will remain high once the threat of COVID-19 is over, but the end doesn't seem anywhere near since a vaccine for the virus still hasn't been found.

Would you pay significantly more to fly to be sure of your safety?