HOW BUDGET AIRLINES WORK?

How budget airlines work ? A big question because when we try to book tickets we can clearly see these budget airlines offer some great price to the customers. The budget airlines were started in Europe and now they are all over the world. In India we have INDIGO,SPICEJET,GO AIR,AIR ASIA INDIA. But in Europe you can easily found 2 hour long flight below 10 euro  and the price is significantly less than the traditional airways . Europe has EASY JET ,RYAN AIR,WIZZ AIR.Some times the price may be half or sometimes even quarter of the price. So how is it possible ?

Budget airlines work on some key points, They make every expensive thing inexpensive and cut out some persons on working and huge negotiation power makes them more profitable than others.

-The most expensive thing in this market is planes . They are very expensive . One Airbus 320 costs around 100,000,000$ while one Boeing 737-max8 costs around 110,000,000$ . So it is possible to spend less in buying aircrafts by placing bulk order. We have seen INDIGO placing an order of 180 A320 planes and SPICEJET placing an order of 205 B737 planes. By placing bulk order they get huge discount.

RYAN AIR B737

-It may seem weird that budget airlines buy new planes but new planes  are the most efficient planes and the fuel economy of new plane is very good as compared to older ones. So EASY JET,JET BLUE, INDIGO,SPICEJET,RYAN AIR  all have younger planes as compared to all major airlines.

EASY JET A320

- Again budget airlines work on same type of planes . Like INDIGO,GO AIR,EASY JET operates only A320 family, SPICEJET,RYAN AIR have only B737. Having one type of plane is very effective because you have to train the crew for only one type of plane.

INDIGO A320

-Budget airlines generally avoid luxury inside the planes. Specially seats of budget airlines do not recline as it increases initial purchase price and also require more maintenance.

-Flight attendant in budget airlines are often in the beginning of their career and receive only basic training (Safety training). Also they play multiple role as some go to check the tickets while others clean planes. Through this airlines cut 2-3 persons and save money .

-On board food and drinks are never cheap. They offer them on high price and it is the best way to gain more money out of it.

INSIDE OF AN RYAN AIR- The interior is full of advertises. Another way to earn money.

- Planes of budget airlines operate all day ,non-stop because when planes will fly non-stop the company will make money. Generally the planes go for 5-6 round trips in one day . In the past the time between  landing of plane and takeoff of that plane is generally 1hr but budget airlines make it quicker . They reduced that time to 30-45 minutes maximum , so that the plane will be in air and make money.

-If you are going to land a plane in an airport you have to give fees to that airport. Newyork’s  jfk airport charges $6.33 for 1000 pounds of plane taking off. Generally a plane (For A320)weighs about 172000 to 180000 pounds . so you have to give 1089$ to jfk. Similarly London heathrow, Paris Charles de gaulle airport, Mumbai chhatrapati Shivaji airport are very expensive and there landing and take off fees are very high rather than others . So budget airlines only have a set amount of flights to that airport to avoid paying high fees. They fly to these airports when the airport is less busy and at that time the fees are generally low.

TERMINAL-1, PARIS CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT

- Also if you will notice Budget airless do not even allow for connections. Because if they will allow connections they have to pay for ground crew to transfer bag and book the ticket for the passenger if they miss the connection flights.

-Generally budget airlines do not use jet ways because they are costly ,Instead they use steps , so that passengers will walk , take a bus .

JET WAYS

LADDER INDIGO

STAIRCASE RYAN AIR

-There are certain airports to where only budget airlines are connecting , Like if you are in India it’s may be Visakhapatnam or Bhubaneswar ,in London it is Gatwick,Stansted, Luton , in Paris it is Beauvais . There will be only 2-3 airlines flying to that airport. Here they charge significantly high because the competition is less.

-Budget airlines are more profitable than others. EASY JET, RYAN AIR, WIZZ AIR, INDIGO all have higher profit margins than LUFTHANSA,KLM,BRITISH AIRWAYS but for us consumers , every competition is a good competition because of these low cost airlines now we can fly more by spending less money and these airlines are forcing other major airlines to reduce the ticket price .

                                AMIT PARIDA