This research analyses airlines' pricing decisions in response to changes in the market conditions. We estimate the effects of jet fuel price changes on European airfares at airline/route level by discriminating on the grounds of supplied capacity and markets’ competitive structure. Our results show that airlines tend to adjust fares asymmetrically following a “rocket and feather” behaviour. The asymmetric pricing is marked in periods of decreasing capacity when the increases of fuel price are passed at a higher degree than fuel cost savings. In contrast, when capacity increases the asymmetry is lowered. Moreover, we show that highly competitive markets are characterized by a lower price asymmetry compared to low competition markets. Finally, our results show that airline price asymmetry reaches its maximum when capacity is reduced and competition is low.

这项研究分析了航空公司根据市场状况的变化做出的定价决策。我们通过区别供应能力和市场竞争结构来估算航空燃油价格变化对航空公司/航线水平上的欧洲机票的影响。我们的结果表明，航空公司倾向于按照“火箭和羽毛”行为不对称地调整票价。当燃油价格上涨的幅度高于燃油成本节省幅度时，不对称定价的特征是容量下降。相反，当容量增加时，不对称性降低。此外，我们表明，与低竞争市场相比，高竞争市场的特点是价格不对称性较低。最后，