Articles tagged “low-cost carriers”

Despite an enormous pool of potential passengers, Africa’s low-cost market has yet to take off. Are restrictive bilateral agreements to blame, or is something else going on here? For many airlines, the numbers just don’t add up.

With so many new aircraft coming onboard, Norwegian was always going to have to cast its eyes further afield for new destinations. Air fares between Europe and South America tend to be on the pricey side, so Argentina is a sensible place to start shaking things up.

It's nice that the DOT finally got around to approving Norwegian's Irish unit to fly to the United States. But this is not as big of a game-changer as some have suggested. Norwegian was going to grow in the United States and offer low fares on transatlantic flights, regardless of whether this happened.

Politics is a funny game. There was little doubt the government would approve Norwegian's application — it had no legitimate basis to deny it — but the DOT still waited years before finally getting around to it. That was probably not fair to Norwegian, but the airline will survive.

United surprised the airline community when it announced that its basic economy fares wouldn't allow for free overhead carry-on luggage this week. To many, that makes its upcoming basic economy fare worse than the competition. But will mainstream passengers care?

During Jeff Smisek's reign, industry insiders used to poke fun at United for copying Delta on key decisions. But with its new Basic Economy product, United is thinking outside the box. United's new fare may not be great news for flyers, but investors should be happy.

Iberia is just the latest in a host of carriers to launch a premium economy cabin, but the product looks like a big improvement over the main cabin.

American, United, and Delta are all introducing no-frills fares to try to thwart Frontier, Allegiant, and Spirit. It might work, or it might not. But it's worth a shot. The Big 3 do not want any of the discount airlines to grow to be as large and powerful as Ryanair.

Delta is generally considered the most fiscally sound of the U.S big three, and that likely won't change soon. But Delta, like its competitors, needs to come up with a cohesive strategy on how to challenge the discount airlines beginning to move into the trans-Atlantic market.

United pushed the launch of its basic economy fares out a few months, giving business travelers a few more months to enjoy the full perks of budget tickets. Slowly, however, the axeman cometh.