Boom in Discount Airlines

Discount airlines, known as no-frills carriers or low budget planes, which offer cheap flights are now the talk of the day. The boom in market economy, particularly in the span of 80' and 90' catered the need of new emerging class, which was low paid but thrived with the blessing of convergent business and it raised the average standard of living. The splitting of business in different countries to attract the comparatively low cost labor actually helped to emerge the new but confident middle class in the once poor countries like India and Malaysia. In the report published in The Guardian , on Saturday March 6 2004, the reporter John Aglionby, based in Kuala Lumpur stated the rise of ' budget airlines' offering almost 60% cheap travel than a year ago in Malaysia alone. Such airlines attract the travelers who want the facility of air travel within the countries. Even the large jets or the airbus A320 are used by discount airlines. Frontier Airlines is for domestic travel but it offers a travel to some cities in Mexico and Canada as well.
The attack of 9/11 was a great shock for the airliners since the people were scary to travel by air and this trend affected the airliners, traveling within the countries. For example EasyJet, based in Luton, issued an assessment report after the attack, claming 26% fall the next day after the attack but by offering discount travel it recovered soon within a week and sold 188,089 seats. EasyJet claimed then that the low-budget airlines were resilient, if they concentrated to fly point to point within Europe. The fierce critic of national airliners such as British Airways, Mr. O'Leary, proposed a solution, after the crises faced by the airliners after 9/11 that 'lower fare' was the only way out to get back in the air. The group like British Airways cut haul flights by a quarter to avoid bankruptcy since the airliner needed fresh equity. But when Mr. O'Leary announced the discount offer Ryanair's booking soared higher than before the attack of 9/11. The offer was one-way ticket but the peak period over Christmas and New Year was exempted. The critics of discount travel called it marketing ploy and it was condemned as seats begging.
It is interesting to note that the concept of discount airlines is considered a new concept and mostly it is related to the attack of 9/11 but the study of some of the annual reports of the airlines reveal that it has been around for quite a period of time. The offer of ticket less travel in early 70's by Southwest Airlines testify our claim. Actually the secret of the haul airliners was to cut costs to cater the demand of low wages people. Moreover, avoiding printing tickets the discount airliners encourage the passengers to book their seats through internet and the best deals are offered to those who get their seats booked at the earliest.
The advent of the internet has also been an encouraging factor. It not only encouraged the operators to offer discounts but also ensured the great access of the pricing information for the potential customers. Now the customer has the opportunity to compare the pricing list and to know of the cheapest deals, offered by different airlines, so this trend demands from airlines to become competitive and it is only possible if they reduce their price.
In the past the passengers of the traditional airlines were found complaining against the quality of food served in the flights. To avoid this issue the airlines stop providing food or other provisions of refreshment during the flight. Interestingly enough there was no public resentment and now you have to buy your food and bring it on board, or pay to rent earphones for the duration of the flight. You will also find that these airlines operate many short haul flights, and so in a day may have up to ten flights between two cities. This makes it easy for you to just drive to the airport, buy a ticket and hop on a flight. For this reason, discount airlines are often popular with business travelers who just want to jump on a flight, with no fuss, get to their destination, get their work done and get back home
The main hurdle in traveling with discount airlines is that such airlines mostly change their routes. If the ticket is cancelled or there is some technical problem with airline then airline does not take the responsibility for anything more than refunding the fare and even that is not guaranteed always. Moreover, some airlines like Ryanair land on the airports which are far away from the destined city. As Frankfurt's airport Hahn is almost 100 km away from the city. Before traveling on discount flights the passenger must make it sure that additional cost of transport are worth flying to the unknown airports. Though with all the hurdles as discussed earlier now there is boom in the business of the airlines offering low budget flights.
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