[Bcalboy01]

A bit more explanation. Easyjet whilst still having a successful model is slowly going from having to had. Its great for their passengers but the downside is their fares are rising. The LCC’s have told pax what they should pay for European travel. The pax will only pay so much, then turn to Ryanair or their equivalents. Remember, very few people in the grand scheme of things give a damn about quality for 1 to 2 hours in the air

[SimonS1]

Bcalboy – no evidence to support that though is there. In the last financial year passenger numbers, load factors, profits all up.

They are flexing their model to catch business travellers as well and many people I know now use them for European bus trips due to frequency, new planes, free change of return flight, allocated seats, use central airports etc.

Their positioning is completely different to Ryanair who reduce everything to the lowest common denominator but fly to secondary locations.

Lets face it they have seen BA off on short hauls, the only thing sustaining BA is transfer traffic plus people of importance who still pay (or at least their expenses do) over inflated prices for Club Europe and the lounges. WWs comments yesterday clearly signal further cost cuts so expect Easyjet to be rubbing their hands.

[Bullfrog]

Both Easyjet and Ryanair have seen fare rises. I don’y fly Ryanair on principle, but my last flight in 2009 was a mere £ 10. I’ve not seen those fares for many years.

Ryanair is an irish registered airline. I am informed their standards of safety are different to that imposed by the CAA under which Easyjet would fall.

I find Easyjet a very acceptable airline. It does ‘what is says on the tin’ in a manner which is more pleasant than Ryanair.

I did find O’Leary’s comment from a few years ago, very amusing .. ‘BA is a pension fund with wings’.

[TominScotland]

Interesting discussion. Alex, you rightly point to Air AsiaX as an operating long-haul LCC (whether genuinely sucessful or not is unclear) but also don’t forget Jetstar and Scoot so Asia is certainly testing LCC routes that are TA-equivalent regionally, to Australia from Asia and to Hawaii from Australia. These airlines invest in appropriate equipment (A330 etc) with 787s due to Scoot soon so they are minimising operating costs. It will, therefore, be interesting to see how Norwegian fare with their 787s between Norway/ Sweden and the US/ Thailand.

SimonS1, LCCs may have partially seen off BA on European routes but you might also have pointed out that they have done much the same to mainline AF, KLM, LH and SK as well (all of which have had to move to full or partial low-cost models to survive beyond transfer business) while totally killing off Malev. The reality is that no full-service carrier makes money on intra-Europe business so BA is certainly not out on a limb here.

[LuganoPirate]

Strange how both O’Leary and Stelios studied and then copied the US LCC’s yet both are still in business and profitable whereas most, if not all, of those US LCC’s have now gone bust! They must be doing something right?

[1nfrequent]

Still can’t stand O’Leary but I did come away from this impressed by his work ethic. I don’t know too many CEs who’d do his schedule and he seems to have a very hands-on approach.

I’d totally forgotten Stelio’s stunt on the Go launch. I did wish they’d asked him about his attempts to apply the Easy logo to other ventures because it might have helped draw out the airline specific factors a bit more.

1F

[craigwatson]

I thought they copied Southwest’s business model in the US, and it is still going strong, consistently ranked as one of the best airlines in the US.

[TominScotland]

Yes, that is right craigwatson – in fact both O’Leary and Haji-Ioannou (or Michael and Stelios, if you prefer) spent time with Southwest before developing their successful models.

[AMcWhirter]

Hello TominScotland

Yes there is LCC competition between SIN and SYD (as well as KL to SYD). It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

As I have written for next month’s Snapshot page, Southwest is a survivor because it’s controlled its seat mile costs.

Ryanair also keeps costs down even though in doing so it alienates some passengers with its way of doing business.

The key to success in the LCC business is keeping down the cost of seat miles.

[BigDog.]

In keeping with the raising of the standard of discourse, Mr. Michael O’Leary requests that his “World’s Favourite Airline” is no longer referred to as being.. “No Frills”..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10139204/Ryanair-with-or-without-the-frills.html

Any further requests Mr. O ?
An apt time to rerun the old story methinks….

Ryanair’s, Micheal O’Leary, arrives
in a hotel in Dublin, he goes to the bar and asks for a pint of draught
Guinness. The barman nodded and said, “That will be one Euro please, Mr.
O’Leary.”

Somewhat taken aback, O’Leary replied, “That’s very cheap,” and
handed over his money.

“Well, we try to stay ahead of the competition,” said the barman,
“and we are serving free pints every Wednesday evening from 6 until 8 p.m.
We have the cheapest beer in Ireland.”

“That is a remarkable value,” comments Michael.

“I see you don’t seem to have a glass, so you’ll probably need one of
ours. That will be 3 euros please.”

O’Leary scowled, but paid up. He took his drink and walked towards a seat.

“Ah, you want to sit down?” said the barman. “That’ll be an
extra 2 euros. You could have pre-booked the seat, and it would have only cost
you a Euro.”

“I think you may to be too big for the seat sir, can I ask you to sit in
this frame please?”

Michael attempts to sit down but the frame is too small and when he can’t
squeeze in he complains, “Nobody would fit in that little frame”.

“I’m afraid if you can’t fit in the frame you’ll have to pay an extra surcharge
of 4 euros for your seat sir.”

O’Leary swore to himself, but paid up. “I see that you have brought your
laptop with you,” added the barman. “Since that wasn’t pre-booked
either, that will be another 3 euros.”

O’Leary was so annoyed that he walked back to the bar, slammed his drink on the
counter, and yelled, “This is ridiculous, I want to speak to the
manager”.

“Ah, I see you want to use the counter,” says the
barman, “that will be 2 euro please.”

O’Leary’s face was red with rage. “Do you know who I am?”

“Of course I do Mr. O’Leary.”

“I’ve had enough, What sort of bar is this? I come in for a quiet drink
and you treat me like this. I insist on speaking to a manager!”

“Here is his E-mail address, or if you wish, you can contact him between 9
and 9.10 every morning, Monday to Tuesday by dialing this free phone number.
Calls are free, until they are answered, then there is a talking charge of only
10 cents per second.”

“I will never use this bar again!”

“OK sir, but remember, we are the only hotel in Ireland selling pints for
one Euro.

[Author]

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