I recall that British Airways faced a very lengthy legal battle when it launched its own LCC in the late 90's GO which ironically was sold off to easyJet, as Rod Edington didn't think an LCC suited BA's business model.
Just a slight correction and is is only for accuracy and not criticism of George Tower.
BA started 'GO' and it did very well, competing with easyJet and RyanAir. After some changes at Mainline, they decided to sell it off. GO was bought by an investment company led by '3i'. The airline prospered to the point that '3i' decided to realise their investment in a purely financial manner. That is to say that they were financial people and were not interested in the airline business as such. 3i sold to easyJet which irritated a few people.
So we had some old fashioned market consolidation in the uK, which is why I said earlier in the thread, that I expect something similar will happen in ZA in due course. If SAA think that they can find a way to a cheaper cost base by using an LCC, then the experience of carriers across the globe is that it is an
extremely difficult trick to pull off. Most do not succeed.
The best way to reduce your cost base is the Swiss and Sabena method.