No Frills: The Truth Behind the Low Cost Revolution in the Skies

Abstract

The rise and rise of new and dynamic low cost airlines, led by easyJet, Ryanair, Go and Buzz, is currently Europe's biggest business success story. Innovative marketing strategy, youthful and larger-than-life executives and high profile personality clashes all feature in this saga with only one winner: the airline passenger who for the first time in aviation history gets the best end of the deal. Millions of people who were previously wary of air travel on the grounds of expense are now winging their way around Europe at rock bottom prices and adding quality to their lives. But where did it all start? Who came up with the idea of ticketless booking via the Internet? How do these airlines make such profits when they virtually sell their seats for free? Is this the pattern for all future air travel? And possibly the biggest question of all: are they safe? This title probes deep beneath the surface of recent television programmes like Airport and proves that an attractively unique proposition plus top business skills can still get the required result even in these difficult times. The triple whammy of low-priced tickets, interesting and off-the-beaten-track destinations and the popular use of convenient local and regional airports with fast turnaround times, has enabled these modern pioneers to reinvent the travel habits of a nation. Since the tragedies of 11 September 2001 in the United States, these aggressively marketed companies have been spurred on by their chief executives, ultimate entrepreneurs like Stelios Haji-Ioannou of easyJet, Michael O-Leary of Ryanair and Barabara Cassani of Go and have taken advantage of the problems of the national intercontinental airlines like British Airways and increased their sales exponentially. This has truly been a revolution in the skies. These democratic airlines, flying small town destinations like Aarhus, Alghero, Carcassonne, Jerez, Montpellier, Perpignan and Vasteras from hubs like London, Luton and Stansted and local airports like Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle and Cardiff, at prices so low that they are no longer a major consideration and heavily publicised in the mass media, have broken the mould of traditional air travel and in doing so have created a uniquely modern phenomenon. No Frills is the story of these unprecedented changes told by a travel industry insider with access to the main players.

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