The success story of European low-cost carriers in a changing airworld

Abstract

Innovative and low-cost carriers have transformed the airline industry on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in the last decades. The European airline market is since the full liberalization late 1990s very fast in change. What's the secret behind the success of these new airline companies ? Simple, there is no secret. The low cost carriers can offer cheap flights because they save every single euro they can to give it back to the customer. For example, there is practically no service on board. Moreover, most of those carriers, such as Ryanair reduce costs, because they don't serve the hubs, but secondar (or regional) airports with lower charges, which often are located quite far away from the place of destination, like Frankfurt Hahn, London Luton, Girona Barcelona or Brussels South (Charleroi). Another important fact is that these airline companies don't set up a network. They have only point-to-point connections, but with a high market potential, esp. for individual private or non-business travellers. They are not interested in connecting flights. The traditional carriers have their hubs where passengers can switch planes, from European to intercontinental flights, for example. It's obviously that it is not so cheap to operate such a network and a hub. in this article we would like to give the essential background information of the low cost airline companies, followed by a European benchmark and the impact of the European aviation policy, in order to explain the succesful expansion, esp. on the market of tourist destinations.