Characteristics of low cost companies.
To operate low cost flights (sell cheap tickets), airlines must have specific characteristics to allow them to keep prices as low as possible. The basic ones are:
- A single passenger class, with free choice of the seating place.
- A single airplane make (in order to optimize service costs), such as Airbus A320s or Boeing 737s (for instance: Ryanair uses Boeing 737 series, EasyJet favors both Boeing 737s and Airbus A319s).
- Airplanes have more seats (for instance, Lufthansa's Boeing 737s carry 132 passengers, EasyJet's ones carry 148).
- Lower weight allowance for both hand carried and stored luggage.
- No free meals or beverages are served on board, but they are available to buy.
- Crew members fulfill multiple tasks (mainly stewardesses and stewards).
- Intensive use of airfleets. For instance, EasyJet flies an average of 10.7 hours a day, while British Airways flies 7.1 hours. Airport stops are shorter (with a faster turnover, usually 25 minutes between flights), and flights are shorter too.
- Connections are made using convenient secondary airfields, often far away from town centers, without slot restrictions, little air traffic and lower airstrip fares.
- Straight peer-to-peer connections without luggage transfers to other coincident flights (separate check-in and check-out), no coordinate flight plans with other airlines.
- Expenditure savings trough direct ticket sales, especially trough the Internet and outsourced call centers, automated check-ins and, occasionally service fees.
- Certain offers (as low as 0.99€) are only valid for in-advance bookings or are limited offers, for a relatively low number of seats.
- Lean management (savings on staff). For instance, Germanwings in Cologne employs no more than 50 people.
list of popular airlines:
- southwest airline
- american airlines
- united airlines
- china airlines
- british airlines
- continental airlines
- turkish airlines
- international airlines
- austrian airlines
- pakistan airlines
- northwest airlines
- sas airlines
- south airlines
- american airlines
- midwest airlines
- copa airlines
- delta airlines
- saudi airlines
- west airlines
- garuda airlines
- korean airlines
- klm
- southern airlines
- hawaiian airlines
- singapore airlines
- saudi airlines
- virgin airlines
- aeroflot
