Low cost carriers (LCCs) represent one of the most exciting and dynamic yet often contentious developments in recent commercial aviation history. Formed as a direct result of policies of airline deregulation and liberalisation that were initiated in the United States in the late 1970s before being implemented in certain European, Australasian, Latin American and other world markets from the mid-1990s onwards to encourage competition, LCCs have been responsible for progressively reconfiguring the spatial patterns, operational practices and passenger experiences of flight. In the process, they have enabled growing numbers of people to fly to more places, more frequently, and at lower cost than had been previously possible. In so doing, however, they have generated a number of socio-economic and environmental challenges. The 23 essays included in this volume provide a detailed insight into the emergence, expansion and evolution of the low cost carrier sector worldwide. The volume covers deregulation and liberalisation of the global airline sector, the business models and operating characteristics of low cost carriers, the changing nature of the airline/airport relationship, LCC network characteristics, issues of pricing and competition and the current impacts and likely future trajectories.

Since the enactment of the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, questions that had been at the heart of the ongoing debate about the industry for eighty years gained a new intensity: Is there enough competition among airlines to ensure that passengers do not pay excessive fares? Can an unregulated airline industry be profitable? Is air travel safe? While economic regulation provided a certain stability for both passengers and the industry, deregulation changed everything. A new fare structure emerged; travelers faced a variety of fares and travel restrictions; and the offerings changed frequently. In the last fifteen years, the airline industry's earnings have fluctuated wildly. New carriers entered the industry, but several declared bankruptcy, and Eastern, Pan Am, and Midway were liquidated. As financial pressures mounted, fears have arisen that air safety is being compromised by carriers who cut costs by skimping on maintenance and hiring inexperienced pilots. Deregulation itself became an issue with many critics calling for a return to some form of regulation. In this book, Steven A. Morrison and Clifford Winston assert that all too often public discussion of the issues of airline competition, profitability, and safety take place without a firm understanding of the facts. The policy recommendations that emerge frequently ignore the long-run evolution of the industry and its capacity to solve its own problems. This book provides a comprehensive profile of the industry as it has evolved, both before and since deregulation. The authors identify the problems the industry faces, assess their severity and their underlying causes, and indicate whether government policy can play an effective role in improving performance. They also develop a basis for understanding the industry's evolution and how the industry will eventually adapt to the unregulated economic environment. Morrison and Winston maintain that although the airline industry has not rea

The Evolution of the US Airline Industry discusses the evolution of the hub-and-spoke network system and the associated price discrimination strategy, as the post-deregulation dominant business model of the major incumbent airlines and its breakdown in the early 2000s. It highlights the role that aircraft – as a production input – and the aircraft manufacturers' strategy have played in shaping this dominant business model in the 1990s. Fierce competition between Airbus and Boeing and plummeting new aircraft prices in the early 2000s have fueled low-cost competition of unprecedented scope, that destroyed the old business model. The impact of the manufacturers' strategy on these trends has been overlooked by industry observers, who have traditionally focused on the demand for air travel and labor costs as the most critical elements in future trends and survivability of major network airlines. The book debates the impact and merit of government regulation of the industry. It examines uncertainty, information problems, and interest group structures that have shaped environmental and safety regulations. These regulations disregard market signals and deviate from standard economic principles of social efficiency and public interest. The Evolution of the US Airline Industry also debates the applicability of traditional antitrust analysis and policies, which conflict with the complex dynamics of real-life airline competition. It questions the regulator's ability to interpret industry conduct in real time, let alone predict or change its course towards a "desirable" direction. The competitive response of the low-cost startup airlines surprised many antitrust proponents, who believed the major incumbent airlines practically blocked significant new entry. This creative market response, in fact, destroyed the major incumbents' power to discriminate pricing – a task the antitrust efforts failed to accomplish.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,7 (A-), University of Cologne (Business Planning and Logistics), course: Global Competition in the Aviation Industy, language: English, abstract: In the last three decades low-cost carriers (hence forward referred to as LCCs) have captivated travellers by making the world smaller through cheap short-haul flights. Travellers in the United States have benefited from this concept since the 1970s; whereas, the development in Europe has been much more recent. Lately, LCCs have been quite a hot topic especially since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Many LCCs have amazed investors with their financial performance, as they successfully earned profits in a time when most conventional carriers reported major losses. In Europe, LCCs have entered the market in order to gain market share and to take part in the success of the business. In Germany, the LCC market has taken off with the emergence of two new carriers in the end of 2002. To best understand the low-cost concept, the evolution of LCCs in the United States and in Europe is examined in the second chapter. Furthermore, the background of the most successful LCC Southwest, still being the role model for other LCCs, is presented. In the third chapter the competition theory of Michael Porter is discussed in order to be able to analyse the competitive strategies followed by the LCCs in the chapter four. The fifth chapter gives a brief outline on the most striving marketing strategies among LCCs. Marketing strategies are examined in the fifth chapter. The performance of LCCs is analysed in the sixth chapter, and a comparison to the performance of conventional carriers is conducted. An outlook for the future can be found in chapter seven.

Low-Cost Airline Carriers in Emerging Countries traces the development of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, examining airlines that have become significant players in their home markets but little known at a global scale. The book maps the geography of the LCC phenomenon, explaining the starkly varying success of budget airlines, and assessing their current social, economic and environmental impacts. The book concludes with insights into the future potential of the LCC phenomenon along with its global ramifications. Beginning with Southwest Airlines in the 1970s, low-cost carriers (LCCs) have democratized air travel around the world, fostering huge increases in airline traffic and transforming the airline industry. At the same time however, the ascent of these budget airlines has exacerbated aviation-related problems such as aircraft noise, airport congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and more. LCCs have been extensively studied in the US and Europe but not in emerging regions of the globe. Yet the impact of such airlines is greatest in low- and middle-income economies where only a small fraction of the population has ever flown, and where competition from alternative modes (road, rail) is weak. - Examines the evolution of low cost carriers around the world, how established airlines react to their entry and the wide-ranging societal implications for individual countries and the world - Places emerging countries' LCCs into a global context, comparing them to their US and European counterparts - Offers original quantitative analysis of LCC networks at several spatial scales (global, regional, national, airport vs. airport) using global schedule data from OAG - Includes professionally produced maps of representative airlines networks

Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) have become an integral part of today's air transport and tourism industries. Originating in the United States, the low-cost concept has subsequently been adopted by airlines on all continents. LCCs in Europe and North America, and to some extent in Asia, have already been well covered by academic literature. However, scientific publications on the topic of LCCs in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand are scarce. This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of developments, the legal framework and the current situation of the low-cost carrier phenomenon across the globe. It contains a dozen chapters, each dedicated to a region, all written by highly experienced and renowned experts from around the world. The Low Cost Carrier Worldwide is written primarily for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers and practitioners within the fields of aviation, transport and tourism.

This book gives a brief but concise narrative on the evolution of the airline industry from its beginnings to the present day. The focus is on regulations, historic events and influencing factors that shaped the industry. Starting with the Wright Flyer, the book details the early conventions and regulatory framework, the development of the commercial airline industry through the 1930s, World War II and the Chicago Convention, that created the current regulatory framework of the industry. The book then goes into the regulated and protectionist era and developments that eventually led to the deregulation and liberalization of the industry. At this point, the industry transcended from heavy government involvement to an industry driven by economic factors. Following this change, the industry experienced unprecedented growth leading to the formation of the so-called Sixth Freedom airlines, the airline alliances and the low-cost and ultra-low-cost carriers. This book is an excellent guide to how the airline industry evolved into what it is today.

Extensively revised and updated edition of the bestselling textbook, provides an overview of recent global airline industry evolution and future challenges Examines the perspectives of the many stakeholders in the global airline industry, including airlines, airports, air traffic services, governments, labor unions, in addition to passengers Describes how these different players have contributed to the evolution of competition in the global airline industry, and the implications for its future evolution Includes many facets of the airline industry not covered elsewhere in any single book, for example, safety and security, labor relations and environmental impacts of aviation Highlights recent developments such as changing airline business models, growth of emerging airlines, plans for modernizing air traffic management, and opportunities offered by new information technologies for ticket distribution Provides detailed data on airline performance and economics updated through 2013

The debate on the future of the aviation sector and the viability of its traditional business practices is the core of this book. The liberalization of the EU market in the 1990s has radically modi?ed the competitive environment and the nature of airline competition. Furthermore, the new millennium began with terrorist attacks, epidemics, trade globalization, and the rise of oil prices, all of which combined to push the industry into a “perfect storm”. Airline industry pro?tability has been an elusive goal for several decades and the recent events has only accentuated existing weaknesses. The main concern of ind- try observers is whether the airline business model, successful during the 1980s and 1990s, is now sustainable in a market crowded by low-cost carriers. The airlines that will respond rapidly and determinedly to increase pressure to restructure, conso- date and segment the industry will achieve competitive advantages. In this context, the present study aims to model the new conduct of the ‘legacy’ carriers in a new liberalized European market in terms of network and pricing competition with l- cost carriers and competitive reaction to the global economic crises.