It ain't what you do....its the way O'Leary does it
It ain't what you do....its the way O'Leary does it
Indeed,
As commented earlier, nobody really cares about "Mary". However, I believe 2 levels of airline operate into a regional market such as Ireland's.
1. High Density routes such as Dublin - London/Paris and to a lesser extent Cork- London.
On these routes there is scope for both traditional airlines and lo-co's. The Lo'co's have indeed, worked hard at taking all of this market, however, a split has formed. In the case of Heathrow it satisfies a local West London market in addition to the city centre traffic and finally transiting pax.
2. Regional routes
These thin routes in the case of Ireland usually only support 35-70 seater a/c. If I once again focus on Waterford and its potential I would add the following to Nediin's comments.
Aer Arann, I believe are successful for the following reasons.
On the issue of price, if you wish to fly from London to Waterford, the chances are you'll be offered the following opportunities, fly Stansted/Gatwick to Cork, then take some form of transport to Waterford, and do all of the above again to get home. Fare £2 plus taxes = £40 total.
If you fly Aer Arann £39.99 each way inclusive of tax, you come up with £79.98, a difference of £40. This is my argument, who is going to drive from Cork to Waterford and return, or get someone to drive from Waterford to pick them up and return them to Cork? for £40. Not many?
You can apply this on just about any regional route into Ireland. When you cannot get the £2 fares into the main airports the fare comparisons get even better.
Now it doesn’t matter f you live in China, UK or Ireland, it dosen't matter about Mary and her teabags. At the end of the day, Aer Arann will continue to thrive unless they go completely bananas on their fares either too low or too high. Lo'co's keep regional airlines from loosing the run of themselves. However, even regional airlines are now realising they can have lower fares too, fill their planes and make money. Price elasticity is the term I would use.
Now going back to Neidin's comments - the "Bloodbath" as MOL would describe it is between Lo'co's and main line’s where they compete on individual routes. I.e. Cork - London. That’s where it's all going to get interesting.
I rest my case...........for now.
Shamrogue