Low cost,as in Southwest(SWA),is just fine.THis is a remarkably good airline with unrivalled pilot loyalty and not bad levels of customer service.However,Low cost airlines like Ryanair/Easyjet are a blot on the landscape.I would love to seem them disappear but I wouldnt wish to see so many people lose their job even though their pilots(ryanair) seem to be rather gutless.
There are two objections to "airlines" like this:
a)Theyre incredibly naff.Naff rude people from check-in staff to cabin crew and maybe even the pilots themselves.In the case of Ryan,even their top management people are naff.Years ago,people would travel in comfort and style aboard the flying boats.They were treated like royalty by well brought-up,well-spoken and highly educated staff.Flying was a pleasure and a romantic adventure.Poor people knew their place and went by bus.The cabin crew you see on easyjet or ryan today belong on the jeremy kyle show.And so do the passengers.Naffness begets more naffness.If you want to do low-cost,thats fine,but maintain the standards.Lose the horrendous orange naff uniforms,the whiney outer-London common accents,the bacon baguettes and the interminable PA's on anything and everything from the latest Kylie perfume to God knows what.They even get the gash bags out and come down the aisle expecting you to clean the cabin for them.Re-introduce some style and class into flying.Is it a British thing?I think so as some of the low-cost European airlines,like Air Berlin and Vueling,are not naff at all.They dont shout into the PA mike or threaten you if you dont pay strict attention to the briefing.Theres much less of this "cabin crew are here for your safety only".Thats rot.Cabin crew are primarily there for customer-service.Ask SIA,they know a thing or too about it.It could be done so much better and wouldnt increase costs by all that much.What does it take to do a hot-towel service or do a proper bar service with peanuts.You want a G&T but theres no ice or lemon.Instead theres an over-cooked greasy bacon baguette and oranje juice.Its all so sloppy and unprofessional.If you sit down the back you're driven crazy by all the chav-chatter coming from behind the curtain.They dont get up and help people with their bags during boarding,just sit there chattering on in chav language.
b)Pilots are getting screwed by these low-cost tyrants.A pilot joining Ryan on a Brookfield contract has no protection whatsoever.If any problem arises(a good pilot will soon run into trouble at ryan),ryan can simply take you off the roster and you wont get paid.Young pilots are forced to buy their own ratings and even work free for the first 200 hours line flying.Even type-rated pilots are being bonded.Interviews and sim time are charged at the going rate.Jeppesen charts are photocopied which makes every flight illegal.Ryanair answers to the Irish CAA dont forget.Their pilots look like bus drivers in their yellow jackets trundling across the tarmac.And they sound like bus drivers when they take the time to welcome the passengers.Some of them dont even speak English.Pilots from just one generation back would not have let their profession get turned inside-out in such a thorough and degrading way.They had more backbone and self-respect.
All it needs is one good airline that doesnt charge an arm and a leg to start up and show everyone how its supposed to be done and dross like ryan/easyjet will be put out of business.An airline with a good level of customer service at a reasonable price(£99 one-way,£199 return) would work.The all-business class model failed and the legacy carriers do overcharge,so why hasnt someone tried this "halfway house" model instead?