Most people have some form of criteria by which they choose their airline of preference. You obviously have cost very high on your list and I would not criticise you for that. However, other people may have different criteria.
On short haul flights, yeah, I suppose cost is fairly high on my list. In these difficult times, I suppose it is the same for many which is why the locos can do well in this sort of financial climate. Having flown with LS about 9 times now, mostly because it is the dominant carrier at my local airport (BLK). I like their product but it's not worth paying a lot more for verses EZY. However....on long haul I always try and choose the carriers I think are the best!
Regarding some of the future destinations you identified for LS, I would suggest they would be better or could only be operated profitably as Charter destinations and as such LS involvement would be to operate the flights on behalf of a tour operator such as Jet2 Holidays.
That's the sort of operation I was thinking!
LS could do what BE now do, for example they are contracted to run Prestwick-Jersey in summer IIRC by Discover Jersey (or similar Tour Operator). They perform this contract but sell spare seats on a seat-only basis through their
own website. Additional revenue can be gained on top of the charter like this!
In my experience more people tend to choose packages for these ''less mainstream" (although I use that term very loosely) destinations. I don't see any point in LS (outside "fortress LBA", although that's now been entered by FR) trying to compete on city type routes such as AMS/CDG which EZY, WW and the legacies cover well. Or doing regional airports around Europe that FR cover well with their strategy, remember Jet2's planned flights from LBA to
Albert-Picardie Airport last year?
Ski airports can work on this basis but some tiny field that's not had flights in about 10 years is more suited to FR IMO!
