As of Tuesday, air-ticket buyers from Nanjing can enjoy up to 65 percent in discounts when traveling to other domestic cities, indicating that the agreement by domestic airlines to stabilize prices has been broken after a little over a month.

A ticket from Nanjing to Beijing is only 350 yuan (US$42), Guangzhou is just 530 yuan, and Xia'men is only 340 yuan with the 65 percent discount. As of last month to the end of the weeklong May Day holiday, only 20 percent discounts were offered on the routes.

The new prices from Nanjing to Guangzhou, Beijing and Xia'men are the lowest to date, said an air-ticket seller in Nanjing, adding that even with the airport construction fee, the air-ticket from Nanjing to Beijing is only 390 yuan, even cheaper than a soft-sleeper train ticket.

Nearly all airlines have special offers and each airplane has more than 20 such seats, the seller pointed out, adding that the special offer will end next month.

It is unrealistic to form price agreements in a competitive industry, said an analyst with the Nanjing civil aviation industry.

Fuel prices, amounting to between 20 and 30 percent of the operational costs of airlines, increased by 430 yuan per ton in March this year.

(Shanghai Daily May 19, 2005)