Low cost carrier my posterior.
Its a bit more than just selling the first row of seats for £9.99 and having a website.
Lets face it, easyJet/Go and Ryanair have the sector sown up. Their brands have been established with £millions of advertising and endless hours of product placement and column inches in the press. For years.
Any new entrant to the sector is facing a massive uphill battle to rival this head start.
Ask any Punter in the high street to name a low cost airline and he'll say Ryanair, Easyjet and Go. He probably WON'T say Buzz and will NOT say FlyBe OR MyTraveLite. All of whom are already trying to "become" low cost airlines.
The only way to do it is to start with a clean sheet of paper, a single fleet of B737/A319 and a strong brand that you market at an annual spend of at least £5million. You have ONE base and at least half a dozen aircraft with no more than 500 employees and Engineering, Catering and Cleaning contracted out.
Excel are some way there in that they have the right aircraft and not bad 2 bases. But its a looong way to go.
And all the time Ryanair and Easyjet have nie on a HUNDRED aircraft flying right now and if they parked themselves on your fledgling route they could blow your whole operation out of the water inside one summer season.
Oh and they'll shortly have another 200 aircraft arriving.
Forget it.
All you'll do is create a niche threadbare airline, with zero brand, that makes a mediocre profit.
I'd just love to read the business plan that says "We will enter a sector dominated by Ryanair and Easyjet who are both strong brands and who both make substantial profit - we will enter their market and outsell them with our unique selling proposition of err, umm, ahh, ooer..."
Is the whole thing hinged on the hub being MAN? Nothing stopping EasyJet or Ryanair moving there if you start doing OK and putting you out of business. easyJet are already at Gatwick and sound as if they are going to expand this winter.
BMIBaby are about the only player making a decent stab at entering the sector.
Good luck to Excel though, seem like an efficient bunch.
Ben.