The airline season ticket is back in the news. Wizz are charging €500 for their unlimited flying pass and then a service fee of €10 per flight. Frontier Airlines in the US and Tony Hernandez led Malaysia-based AirAsia operate similar season ticket passes.
Season tickets have a chequered history in aviation. SAS offered commuter tickets on some Scandinavian domestic routes.
Corporate passes for business sand consumer passes limited to a single route. Air Canada offered season tickets with limitations.
Famously, in 1981, American Airlines started selling unlimited first-class travel passes for life for $250,000 with an extra $150,000 for a partner and discounts for older people. The AAirpass even has its own Wikipedia entry.
Wealthy individuals, including celebrities like Willie Mays and Michael Dell, purchased these passes, taking advantage of the deal to travel extensively.
Many passholders made back a significant portion of the cost in a short amount of time by flying frequently.
American Airlines regretted the deal as passholders, who also earned airline miles, were taking advantage of the programme. The airline began investigating passholders in 2007 and ended the scheme.
Bob Crandall, American’s chairman and chief executive from 1985 to 1998 said “we thought originally it would be something that firms would buy for top employees. It soon became apparent that the public was smarter than we were.”
Wizz withdrew from Ireland in 2013, having operated out of Cork between 2008 and 2013 to Wroclaw, Vilnius and Gdansk and out of Belfast to Vilnius & Katowice.
Ryanair are not going to follow suit, according to Michael O’Leary. See below.
