kcin Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > They sound like farmers talking about the weather. Haha, nice comparison 
Just thought I’d update this. In relation to Ryanair being the world’s lowest cost airline; they have announced that as of next year, passengers will not be allowed check in luggage for their flight. You will only be allowed carry on. This follows their previous move to eliminate check in at the airport and go to online only. So from next summer, Ryanair will have no desks at the check in area at their airports thereby saving themselves millions of euro in airport charges. It’ll be interesting to see how passengers react to this. Ryanair has the smartest management team in the sector by a mile, so I imagine they’ll adapt the policy as needed to avoid losing customers. And some so called low-cost airlines in the US thought they were taking a stand by charging for water on flights! Pff. Even the networks charge for water in Europe these days. As a European I have to say I am hugely thankful for Michael O’Leary and Ryanair. Flying in Europe is much cheaper than in the US and RYA are almost totally responsible for that. I’m amazed at how expensive short-haul flight still are in the US and how there are no truely low cost airlines trying to take advantage of that.
JetAmerica is a new U.S. airline that says tickets will start at $9. I think they’re trying the Ryanair approach. It’s run by the same guy that started SkyBus a couple years back. It didn’t last long, and everyone I knew that flew on it (which was like 3 people) had horrible experiences.
Just had a look at JetAmerica. Hadn’t heard of them before. Their website says the 1st 9 seats on each flight will cost $9, although in the small print it says the cost is actually $24.60. Still not bad. Be interesting to see if they can break even. About 3 years ago a new Spanish start up airline called Vueling tried to go head to head with Ryanair. Its average fares were around 35 euros in summer 2007. Ryanair’s average fare is around 43 euros. Unfortunately for Vueling, its cost per passenger was in the high 50’s verus high 30’s for RYA so it was bleeding money while Ryanair turned a healthy profit. It’s hard to compete with the economies of scale of the big boys, especially if you are leasing a lot of your fleet as Vueling were. Ryanair buys in bulk off Boeing and famously gets the lowest prices due to the size of their orders and Michael O’Leary’s negotiating skills. For the record, Ryanair’s cheapest flight are $0 including taxes and charges. They don’t offer many of those, but they do offer many flights for £10 or less all in.