Originally Posted by
Enzo999
Interesting thread. Just out of interest this argument only exists because of the existence of DEC and “rapid commands” at the LCCs. The reasons for this are two fold, high turn over of staff and rapid growth. Is it reasonable to expect these two things to continue? We have already estabilished that terms and conditions etc are equal to or better than the legacy rivals so why would people leave? Furthermore how much more expansion can these companies accommodate, between Easy and Ryan they must have close to 1000 airframes and post Brexit will this/ can this contine?
I am just wondering if it was possible for some to jump ship to Easy then sudenly find themselves tapped in the RHS for 10 years, then this whole argument becomes extremely different! Plus is basing an issue, to my mind there is no point in taking a command if it means having to live in a different country to you wife and children.
Like many I have been extremely disillusioned by my experience of joining BA and have often pondered about jumping ship, but this fear of the above somehow always puts me off.
Yes, once a market is saturated LCCs will have to adjust and grow slower or not at all. However, Europe is far away from that at the moment. Easy for example has only bases in one city in germany, the biggest economy in the EU, apart from that they are present in switzerland (different company though), the UK of course as their main market, spain, france italy and a bit of spain and the netherlands. Nothing in eastern europe or northern europe. There is still a lot of expansion to be done in the markets they are in already, not to mention those they are not in yet. It is going to get harder though, as of course other LCCs did spring up in those markets with Norwegian and Wizzair. Ryanair on the other hand is already present in more markets, but there is still a lot of expansion to be done as well. Easy is currently at around 300 airframes and will probably reach 330 to 360 airframes at the end of the calendar year. Ryanair has something like 440 airframes and will most likely add quite a few frames this year as well.
Compare that to the US with close to 1000 planes in total between southwest and jet blue, not to mention the other ones, in a home market with something like 330 million customers, vs around 500 million in the EU alone, not to mention the other european states or even northern africa which is in range of narrowbody aircraft.