Budget Airline History

Budget airlines are not a new thing, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher developed the original concept back in 1971; a ticketless airline (Southwest Airlines) reducing frills and aiming squarely at offering the lowest possible prices.

Many years later ailing carrier, RyanAir through profit warnings and drifting balance sheet, decided it needed a shot in the arm and adopted and modernised the ethos of King and Kelleher's business model. Cutting the frills and focusing on the functionality.

This proved a phenomenal success, shorter range flights cutting out the unfinished cups of tea and half eaten meals.. A logical step forward..

Launched at just the right time EasyJet tapped into the Zeitgeist of web based travel, offering a purely web-based operation, flights booked only though the web-site, sidestepping overheads and bringing costs down for the punter.

The factors above contributed to the airlines' relative successes, the most pivotal development was EasyJet's pricing model.

Traditional, airlines like British Airways profited on those who booked early, reducing prices as the date of travel approached. EasyJet's pricing model effectively turned this on it's head, rewarding those who bought early and raising prices as the date of travel approached.

Following market deregulation in 1997, the practices laid down by these EasyJet and RyanAir were adopted by many other budget operators both in the UK, throughout Europe, India and South America.

 

Budget Airline Definition

Budget airlines don't issue tickets.

Budget airlines don't do connections.

Budget airlines have short check in times.

Budget airlines promote and sell journey 'legs' separately.

Budget airlines have one class, budget.

Budget airlines sell direct to the public.

Budget airlines don't have free meals or entertainment.