Plane tickets too cheap?

gzlaser

LAST week, CCTV reported on the penalty given to Spring Airlines for selling highly discounted plane tickets.

Spring Airlines, a private air carrier based in Shanghai, was fined 150,000 yuan by the Jinan Price Bureau for selling more than 400 one-yuan tickets from Shanghai to Jinan last November.

The bureau said in a notice that the airline breached a 2004 rule set by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC). The rule says that the maximum discount an airline can offer is 45 percent off a government-set base price.

Regulators say such low-price promotion will trigger vicious price wars and disrupt the aviation market. But the airline's management says the promotion enables more people to travel by air and helps make full use of the seats. Spring Airlines' occupancy rate is 95 percent, compared with the average 70 percent of the State-run airlines.

What do you think? Is it justifiable to fine the budget airline?