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The Lowest Cost Airline!

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Flying Freddie

Bitchin' Blue
Joined
Dec 30, 2002
Posts
345
Cheap Airline Explores Passenger Tolerance
Wednesday February 25, 8:11 pm ET
By Thomas Wagner, Associated Press Writer
Cut-Rate Airline Explores Passengers' Tolerance for Frill-Free Flying


LONDON (AP) -- You got a cheap airline ticket, what else do you want? Ryanair, Europe's most successful budget airline, is testing the Spartan spirit of its passengers and extending the frontiers of cost-cutting.

It recently announced it will dispense with the plane's window blinds, reclining seats, Velcro-anchored headrest covers and the seat pockets where customers normally find a safety notice and free magazines. The required safety notice will be stitched to the back of each seat.

Ryanair also said it may charge for checked-in luggage, and is switching to leather upholstery because it lasts longer and is easier and cheaper to clean.

Removing such "nonessential extras" from its new Boeing 737s will save Ryanair hundreds of thousands of dollars per plane in the purchase price and the maintenance normally required on broken reclining seats, said Paul Fitzsimmons, the airline's chief spokesman. The goal, he said, is to pass the savings on to its customers.

No matter what carrier you choose, many of the cabin features are set by regulations covering seat belts, environmental-control systems, lighting and the number of doors. Beyond that, an airline is free to decide what amenities, if any, you'll get on board, including toilets, closets and in-flight entertainment.

Theoretically, an airline could abolish toilets and free drinking water on its short flights -- and Ryanair's main competitor in Europe, easyJet, has reduced the number of toilets on its Boeing 737s from three to two, adding another revenue-earning seat.

Toby Nicol, the head of corporate affairs at easyJet, said no one had complained.

"If you don't serve free food on board or show films, you don't have a rush to the toilets with lines outside. On normal flights," Nicol said in an interview, "that happens after dinner and when the film ends."

Another reason customers of easyJet and Ryanair aren't likely to miss these amenities is that flights by no-frill carriers in Europe often average about an hour, with the longest being about two and a-half hours.

In the United States, where average flight times are longer, budget carriers are headed in the opposite direction. Fast-growing JetBlue Airways set the standard, analysts said, by offering cheap fares as well as leather seats, TVs for every passenger and extra legroom.

Delta Air Lines is mimicking that strategy by making satellite TV and video games available on its lower-cost subsidiary, Song.

"In this country, JetBlue has set the pace," said Michael Boyd of the Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo. "You better be giving more for less."
 
We've got those too...They are called regional airlines.

Maybe most regionals will be flying emb 190s or Airbus 318s one day, as an addition to their fleet of RJs. I don't think they are done growing. I also don't think this RJ flying for 2.5 to 3 hrs will last for long. But I've been known to be wrong once or twice before
 

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