Failing Airlines?

Why do airlines only release their flight schedule and prices 11 months prior to departure?

We can currently book cruises now for 2016, but we cannot package it with a price for a flight. If you are planning a big occasion like an anniversary, honeymoon, birthday etc. Then most people would start planning it over 12 months in advance. You would certainly like to budget for it.

I was talking to a very nice gentleman who works for Singapore Airlines. He knows all the flight schedules not just for Singapore Airlines, but for every airline, and he knows this 15 months in advance. So why can’t we?

We can plan and book cruises, trips, hotels, even your transfers in resort all over 12 months in advance. The only thing stopping us planning the whole trip are the flights. Cruise lines recognise customers want to book early and like to take advantage of any early booking offers. So they give you a price for the flights based on what they believe the airlines are going to charge. So they have to guess a price. When the airlines do eventually release the schedule and prices, the cruise lines can then pull through all the existing bookings and book the flights for you. Not ideal, and creates a lot more work most customers would like to know the flight times and route before booking.

If you want to book a 7 night holiday to Cyprus you can go and do it well over 12 months in advance, and know your flight times/numbers etc. You can plan it all as it is a charter flight and not a scheduled flight. So why can’t we get the scheduled airlines (who already know there flight schedule) to release this to us and then we can book everything in advance?

I would like to see all airlines especially those who already know the schedule 15 months prior to departure, release this on open sale. Then we can access those flights and book them in advance with a cruise, hotel etc. Cruise lines can then advise there customers exactly what flights they are going to be on and if they are direct or in-direct.