Been beaten to death a few times on several threads. The low-cost/low-fare model is simply not sustainable for longhaul. On shorthaul, if done with discipline like RyanAir or Wizz, it is possible to achieve a good 50% cost advantage over the full service network model. High aircraft utilisation, secondary airports, local crew bases (no overnighting), simple product and strictly no connecting traffic (except on two tickets at passengers risk) can achieve this. On longhaul much of the cost advantage disappears (network carriers also squeeze out 16-18 hours from the longhaul fleet), due to stage lengths cannot do away with hotel layovers, fuel is a much larger % of total cost, etc. On the revenue side, the low-fare model is able to induce a substantial amount of discretionary spending on shorthaul (who cares for the 20 euro airfare if one can save twice that amount on five beers on a friday night...), whereas on longhaul even the lower fares are above the discretionary spending threshold for the majority of customers, so traffic will have to be captured from others rather than inducing additional travel. By forfeiting premium service, the most stable part of longhaul revenues are missing. Network airlines play with offering low fares for a one-stop product while charging premium for the point-to point, meaning that there will always be a full service network airline matching the lower point to point fares through their hub, eliminating much of the fare advantage, and on longhaul a transfer does not add substantially to total journey time. It simply does not add up, period.
Last edited by andrasz; 29th Dec 2020 at 20:34.