Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev gave concrete instructions to revise and reduce the air ticket prices during the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on the results of the country’s socio-economic development in the first half of 2015. In accordance with the instructions of the head of state, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) CJSC together with the relevant state authorities analyzed the prices for air tickets and took appropriate measures to reduce them. Appropriate work was done for this purpose and the primary information has been made public. At the same time, information centers of AZAL receive numerous appeals regarding the air ticket prices. Given the increased interest in the above-mentioned issue, AZAL once again informs the population about the changes in air ticket prices.
In accordance with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s instructions on reducing the air ticket prices, the relevant analysis was carried out and a decision was made to reduce the existing tariffs for economy class by 20-30 percent in all international directions from August 1.
This affected the most popular routes of AZAL:
- Baku-Moscow-Baku– from 406 euros to 321 euros (a decrease by 85 euros or 21 percent);
- Baku-Istanbul-Baku – from 277 euros to 219 euros (a decrease by 58 euros or 21 percent);
- Baku-Dubai-Baku – from 272 euros to 216 euros (a decrease by 56 euros or 21 percent).
After reducing the air ticket prices, the discount will make 112 euros (22 percent) on Baku-Rome-Baku flight, 141 euros (30 percent) on Baku-Lvov-Baku flight, 116 euros (23 percent) on Baku-Beijing-Baku flight, 158 euros (21 percent) on Baku-New York-Baku flight and etc.
The number of air tickets sold at the low tariff will be no less than 30 percent of the total seats, except for business class. The number of such seats can vary from 32 to 61 depending on the type of aircraft. In particular, while 32 seats will be sold at the lowest prices on routes from Baku to Tehran, Aktau, Kazan and others, this figure will increase up to 48 seats in the direction of Beijing, London, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Antalya, Bodrum, Izmir and Dalaman, up to 53 seats - in the direction of Istanbul, and 61 seats - to New York and etc.
At the same time, AZAL starts low-cost flights on four most popular routes: Baku-Antalya-Baku (3 times a week, starting from August 2015), Baku-Istanbul-Baku ( one flight every day, starting from September 2015), Baku-Moscow-Baku ( 2 flights every day, from October 2015), Baku-Dubai-Baku ( one flight every day, from October 2015).
Different dates for starting the new flights are due to procedural matters such as concluding agreements with the airports for the service, as well as receiving slots (permission) at foreign airports.
Unlike standard low-cost models, AZAL’s low-cost directions have a number of advantages: there is no additional registration fee and fee for choosing seats in the cabin.
The flights will be carried out with Embraer aircraft. All the seats in the cabin of the aircraft are equally comfortable.
Air tickets (including all dues) on these flights will have a fixed price of 99 euros one way. It means that passengers, who pay 99 euros, will get the right to fly with hand luggage in these directions. Passengers will pay not 50 manats as previously announced, but 25 euros for each luggage.
It will be possible to book and buy tickets for all flights of AZAL online (www.azal.az ). It will allow passengers to obtain detailed information on availability of seats, tariffs and purchase tickets at lower prices without paying commission fees to agents.
The sale of tickets for low-cost Baku-Antalya flights started on July 24 and all the tickets for the August 7 flight were sold within two days.
Thus, taking into account all the novelties by AZAL, the passengers who want to use air transport services now have a choice.
In addition, rival foreign airlines such as Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot, Siberia, Flydubai, Ukraine International Airlines, Qatar Airways, Air Astana, British Airways, Lufthansa, Belavia, etc., carry out flights on most routes of Azerbaijan Airlines.
Heydar Aliyev International Airport provides equal opportunities to all airlines, including low-cost airlines.
Hungarian WizzAir company has been offered special and favorable conditions for 3 years to resume regular flights from 2015. Currently, the response of the Hungarian side is awaited.
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