Up to now, I was under the impression that the no-frills/lo-cost-model doesn't work on long haul routes.
Go figure yourself. The main elements of the low cost-model:
- High density seating - can do, but a longhaul business class seat (if filled) generates about 5x the revenue of an economy seat while takes up the space of around 4.
- Quick turnaround times - on 1 hour sector lenghths it makes a huge difference in a/c utilisation if ground time is 20 min or 50 min. On 10 hour sector lengths, this is pretty irrelevant
- a/c & crew always returns to base overnight - no crew accommodation and third party maintenance costs (except if irregularity). Cannot be done on longhaul.
- Better aircraft utilisation with flights scheduled also for uncomfortable early morning / late evening times. Not really relevant on longhaul with over 6 hour sector lengths.
- Secondary airports used. Intra-Europe landing fees may take up 25-30% of total operating cost. On longhaul fights this drops to 10-15%, so savings have less impact.
- Reduced on board service permits minimum crewing. On twin aisle a/c with the requirement for one crew per exit there is less difference between minimum and full service crew than on single aisle models (ok, forget the Qatar 16 cabin crew in a T7)
- Single aircraft model based fleet (737 or A319/20/21 family) to allow maximum crew flexibility and maintenance synergies. DY already compromised this by adding the 787 sub-fleet.
- Fares offer a basic service, tolerated only by the mazochists among us. All creature comforts cost extra - this is probably even more relevant on longhaul, but customers can only be fooled for so long. Some of them can actually count.
Overall, on shorthaul the low-cost model can achieve up to 30-35% cost advantage over the traditional model, but a lot of that is given up by offering promotional fares below cost to attract customers. On longhaul this cost advantage is reduced to max 10-15%, not enough for a really massive reduction of fares, especially if the premium segment is out of the equation.