Why Are Airfares to Natal Always Expensive?

Natal’s new airport has significantly increased the cost of travel between the terminal and hotels. Since the destination is tourist-oriented, most hotels are located on the opposite side of the city, which not only increases travel time but also raises transfer costs. This factor, combined with the natural weariness of traveling, leads many tourists, who are discretionary passengers, to consider alternative destinations. Fewer passengers to share the flight costs results in the obvious: a heavier impact on the traveler’s wallet. It’s like a dinner with many dishes but only a few paying the bill, the airplane also needs to “dine” on fuel, maintain operations with staff on the ground and in the air, and cover a range of other unavoidable expenses.

Elements that discourage passengers

1. Higher transfer costs from the airport to the hotel.

2. Longer transit time and fatigue until reaching the destination.

3. Greater security concerns along the route, which truly has critical points.

Illustrative example:

• Former Augusto Severo Airport → Praiamar Hotel (Ponta Negra)

• Current Airport (São Gonçalo do Amarante) → Praiamar Hotel

The new route adds about 30 km, i.e., 3.3 times the distance from the old airport, while also exposing passengers to more deserted stretches where assaults have been reported. For those arriving tired, losing this extra time is a major discouragement—especially in terms of safety.

For some time, the lighting was poor along nearly 10 km flanked by forest. Today this issue has been resolved, but it is still not a stretch that can be left without surveillance. Without constant monitoring, good lighting alone is insufficient, since emptiness continues to invite actions against tourists and passengers heading to and from the airport.

And let me stress again: the fewer the passengers, the worse the cost-sharing becomes, and consequently, the more expensive the ticket. Even though I feel somewhat safer on this route today, I can’t forget that it has gone through critical periods.

From 13 to 43 km

A route that is 3.3 times longer than the old one—and with an added ingredient of heightened adventure!

Imagem meramente ilustrativa

Economic factors that make tickets more expensive

1. Cost-sharing, the key point of this text

   Simply put: getting an airplane off the ground is expensive, and this cost is divided among passengers. The fewer people interested in the route, the more expensive the ticket becomes—or the airline simply reallocates the aircraft to a more profitable route.

2. Natal as a “dead end”

   Natal is not an air hub. Unlike Recife, which serves as a connecting point and attracts several airlines to fill seats with intermediate passengers, Natal is strictly an end destination. This raises fares because the aircraft must cover the full cost of the route with fewer opportunities for partial occupancy.

3. “But if tickets were cheaper, flights would be full!”

   Not always. A fuller plane means greater weight and more fuel burned. Many times, it is more profitable to operate flights with 70% occupancy at high fares than to fill every seat with low fares.

4. “But flights are always full, and tickets are still expensive!”

   That happens because airlines have reduced flight supply. So even with high occupancy, fares remain expensive: the strategy is to balance lower demand with a higher average fare paid by those who really need to travel.

What about nationally?

Beyond Natal’s specific issues, there is a broader set of national factors that keep Brazil’s aviation sector in a state of “contained gigantism.” Brazil is a country with huge travel demand, but that doesn’t mean it’s reaching its full potential. If competitiveness were at least on par with the global average of operations, the scenario would already be quite different. We don’t even need to compare with countries that have low regulatory demands: if conditions were similar to Europe’s, we would already have achieved a broader, more robust, and sustainable scale. Here are some points that continue to hurt the sector:

About fines and regulation

When consumer protection agencies fine airlines for “abusive” prices, the practical effect is almost zero. Companies appeal, and even when they pay, they can simply cut flights from the route. This has already happened in Natal, further reducing supply.

The problem of competition

Flying in Brazil is very profitable but also highly risky. There are massive barriers to the entry of new companies. Some reasons:

• 98.5% of all lawsuits against airlines worldwide come from Brazilian passengers.

• Taxes and fees can account for 30% to 40% of the ticket price.

• Aviation is, by nature, a high-cost, high-demand industry.

This scenario makes it hard for low-cost airlines to enter Brazil. The European model, based on paid extras onboard, would likely not survive here—since regulatory restrictions block practices like broad inflight sales that subsidize cheap fares.

Always more expensive than most other capitals

To be fair: fares to and from Natal already had a somewhat negative reputation even back when the Augusto Severo Airport was in operation. However, this difference has become more pronounced due to the reasons we’ve discussed.

I haven’t calculated the accumulated costs from this change, but if stagnation persists, the time will come when only major logistical alterations will make airport-city flow viable. Otherwise, we run the risk of looking back nostalgically and even considering a return to Augusto Severo—though today this isn’t even legally possible. Contract breaches would put at risk not only local trust but also the country’s overall credibility regarding the concession model. And let’s be honest: the concession group here would certainly love a change of address.

Cheap airfares

In Brazil, the only consistent way to reduce fares comes down to two central factors: cutting operational costs and ensuring legal security for airlines. Today, companies must set aside a significant portion of their resources to handle the avalanche of lawsuits filed by passengers—already making Brazil the world leader in this type of litigation.

Until this scenario changes, there’s no magic: truly cheap fares would only come with the entry of low-cost airlines. But here lies another problem: many of the practices that allow these companies to sell cheap tickets in Europe or the United States are simply prohibited in Brazil. Charging for extra services, extensive inflight sales, and other secondary revenue streams have no room here, making the model unfeasible.

More competition could indeed help. If new companies were allowed in, we could have alternative routes like Natal–Belém or Natal–Manaus, which would turn Natal into a strategic intermediate point and help dilute costs. But without regulatory and legal reforms to reduce risks and open space for commercial innovation, we’ll remain stuck with the same dilemma: high fares and low supply.