LOW COST, HIGH STAKES

Most people believe that budget short-haul aviation came before long-haul low-cost flying. In fact, the reverse is true. Long-haul low-cost carriers (LCCs) trace their history back to the seventies and eighties, when pioneers Laker Skytrain and US airline People Express took to the skies. After their demise, matters went quiet until the emergence of short-haul carriers such as Ryanair, Go and Easyjet during the nineties.

Long-haul LCCs came to prominence back then because the transatlantic market between the UK and the US was not restricted as with other world regions. The European liberalisation that led to short-haul low-cost travel did not start until more recently.

Short-haul LCCs have proved successful. Every year they carry hundreds of millions of passengers throughout Europe. Although a number of long-haul counterparts have