Why fly to Paris when you can enjoy Omaha?
NEW YORK - A nonstop airline ticket from New York to Paris on the first weekend in May costs $1,142. A Continental Airlines Inc flight to attend Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska the same weekend: $1,433.
As investors have been making plans to attend the event that Berkshire's chairman, Warren Buffett, calls the "Woodstock for capitalists", airlines including Continental and Delta Air Lines Inc have been raising prices for the weekend of the meeting. They're asking four times the normal rate for round trip tickets, which means New Yorkers will pay more to visit Omaha for the May 1 meeting than London, Rome or Barcelona.
Continental has added one flight from the New York area on April 29 and three on April 30, said Mary Clark, a spokeswoman for the airline. Attendees who bought tickets earlier paid less for their seats, she said. Now, the Houston, Texas-based company is demanding a premium for the spots that remain.
"There does appear to have been high demand," Clark said. "Since many of those fares have already been sold and there are very few seats left, the seats that are left are at the higher fares."
Last year, even as the threat of H1N1 flu kept some shareholders away, a record 35,000 people flooded Omaha's Eppley Airfield, packed the hotels and swarmed the city of 439,000. Three days of events this year start with a reception at the Berkshire-owned Borsheims jewelry store on April 30 and conclude with waves of diners heaving steaks at Gorat's and Piccolo Pete's, two eateries where Buffett pledged to appear on May 2.
Visitors to Paris that weekend could watch the May Day parade from the Place de la Bastille, see Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa at the Musee du Louvre or take a boat ride on the Seine past Notre Dame Cathedral. The horse-chestnut trees bordering the Champs Elysees typically bloom in May, while classical musicians stage twilight concerts at the Jardin du Luxembourg.
The Berkshire investors who pick Nebraska instead will fill the Qwest Center arena to listen to Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha", as he takes questions from the audience on investing, politics and the economy for more than six hours. Extracurricular activities may include visits to former President Gerald Ford's birth site, the Freedom Park Navy Museum, and the world's largest indoor desert, according to the city's Convention & Visitors Bureau.
"Paris and London, all those cities are so boring," said Mohnish Pabrai, the founder of Irvine, California-based Pabrai Investment Funds, who has attended every annual meeting since 1998. "Omaha is where all the action is. Why would you ever want to be in Paris on May 1?" he said. "Nothing compares to Omaha."
Investors hoping to fly nonstop from New York to attend all the events Buffett has scheduled would need to buy a ticket from Continental that leaves New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport on April 30 and returns on May 3. The economy-class fare is $1,433, including taxes and fees, according to Continental's website.
Two weeks later, the same round trip to Omaha costs $309 in coach, according to the website. Nonstop flights from New York's LaGuardia on Delta are sold out on April 30. The remaining coach seats on an April 29 nonstop Delta flight from LaGuardia cost $1,188, according to the airline's website.
"Any event that draws additional demand from our customers is good for business," said Kent Landers, a spokesman for Delta. "Whenever possible, we will add seats to make sure we can accommodate as many customers who choose to fly Delta as possible."
Delta has not added flights for the annual meeting because passengers can book trips that include stopovers in other cities, Landers said. The airline is offering a flight from LaGuardia to Omaha on April 30 with single stops each way for $443. The return flight includes a 30-minute layover at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
Bloomberg News
(China Daily 04/01/2010 page14)
