Costs of running an airline
Route operating costs
staff
fuel
maintenance
depreciation/operating leases
other niff naff
OK, what is variable between say CX and Oasis? Presumably, CX can get a better deal on planes due to order sizes so depreciation/operating leases should be cheaper for CX. Maintenance...same same with HAECO. Fuel, maybe the same, maybe slightly cheaper in HKG for CX due order size. Route operating costs...same for both since we do the same route and destination.
That leaves staff. I hear they pay around 100K for a CN. Plus another 24K for housing. Brand new B scale CN gets 98 plus housing of up to 80ish so we cost more. BUT, at the moment, CX pilots fly more hours than they do, so per hour, we are more cost effective.
So if CX started a LCC and people worked for free, the fares would be approx 20% lower than they are now. The rest of the costs would be the same. The savings that companys like Southwest make is by flying to secondary airports and thus lower their route operating costs.(Inflt catering is only a small % of total costs so I didnt bother including it)