Airbridge v steps - cost?
One thing that puzzles me - the low-cost airlines seem to favour their passengers climbing steps to get onto their aircraft rather than using an airbridge so that they can just walk from the terminal onto the plane. The reason for this appears to be cost-saving. is it really cheaper to drive 2 sets of steps to the plane, corrrectly position them, set out guide ropes to keep passengers away from the engines/wings etc, have a couple of bods around to make sure that passengers don't go wandering off and take this all down when boarding is complete, rather than just having an airbridge motor out to the "front door" of the plane? To my mind an airbridge would be a much cheaper way of doing things.
EDIT - sometimes using the steps method also involves buses taking the passengers from the terminal to the plane, yet another expense