Spotter/Aviation Analyst Breathless Thread
So Excel.com has now also gone into receivership, along with 8 other companies.
Does this loss of another lcc and the subsequent loss of many thousands of seats put the whole lcc operation/model under stress?
We have seen what the effect of the current high fuel price has done to many airlines? Watching an interview on BBC this morning, with some airline analyst, he said it was all very well having many cheap seats going all over the place but what do you want - a low cost carrier thinking 2 years ahead, so an airline that is focused on providing a quality service to its customers, albeit at a much higher cost, that is going to be around for many more years. Does the lcc model come under the looking glass and is it still going to be around in the coming years? Or are we going to see a return to the super-airlines running monopolies over the world? Expensive yes, but at least they will be there - BAW/American alliance, Emirates, Etihad, etc for example?
It seems so many of these lcc's come and go and what would you rather do - pay a cheap fare and hope to be able to get back home after your trip or pay a bit more and have the assurance that the more expensive airline will (hopefully) still be around when you return home?
It sure raises some interesting issues and I am sure there are going to be many arguements for and agains the lcc's and the more established airlines operations. Some of the more established airlines need to be excluded from this arguement (SAA is one, as they have a never-ending pit of money to bale them out), but one has to look at all the older government run airlines in Europe how they have come and gone, in part due to poor management and administration and civil service logic/management.
Would love to know where the airline industry is going - so many people out of jobs now, aircraft standing, subsequent reduced seating capacity - what is it going to do the airline travel industry as we know it today? What will the impact be on ANS Providers? Will the same amount of people chasing lesser seats see fares increase dramatically, or what is going to happen? Is it worth the risk of buying a fare on a new lcc - are they actually going to get up and running now, will they be able to get covering finance without penalty, etc etc?
I think the industry is still going to go through some pretty bad turbulence and one wonders who will emerge from it and under what conditions?
Are we as the travelling public going to be forced to pay more and see the end of cheaper fares, to get some stability - in turn what will the effect be on the aircraft manufacturing industry and leasing companies - will less a/c be ordered or more??