General information on low cost airlines Low cost airlines and their fares deeply changed the flight sector. A low cost (or no frills, or low fares) is an airline company that offers flights at very competitive prices (Cheap Flights) by not offering or by selling most of passenger services (like on-board meals, seats bookings, etc.). Cheap flights were born in USA in 1971 with Southwest Airlines, and started spreading in Europe at the beginning of the ’90s with Ireland’s Ryanair.Statistics and history in brief To point out the strong growth of low cost flights we will show a few stats: in 1994 about 3 million passengers flew low cost, most of them with Ryanair, and in 1995 they reached 17,5 million. In 1995 British Airways founded their cheap flights division named Go, operating from London Stanstead airport in 1998. The same year Go started operating creatine monohydrate form London Luton as well. In the year 2000, Go was sold to EasyJet.com with an operational loss of over 21 million Pounds. In 2000 KLM also entered the low cost world with Buzz, which was bought over by Ryanair in 2003 with very high losses. Currently EasyJet.com and Ryanair are among the most successful European low cost airlines, and operate over several hundred routes. Today’s market situation sees a strong and constant growth of the cheap flights sector, new routes being opened every day by all main airlines, In the future a strong growth of low cost companies it is foreseen also in the long range flights segments.Why low cost flights are such Low cost airlines are very flexible and efficient organizations with a cost structure that is very different from the one of traditional airlines. Cutting many costs allows them to offer very competitive prices.
