One of the starkest examples of the efficiencies of low-cost airlines is the comparison between the defunct Ansett Australia and low-cost operator Virgin Blue's passenger uplift/staff ratio. According to Virgin Blue figures the airline will carry more passengers than Ansett on major Australian domestic truck routes for the year ending 31 March 2004, with only a third of the staff. The two airlines' RPM/RPK figures are almost identical, however Virgin Blue only has 3,300 staff compared with the 10,000 staff that Ansett employed for its domestic trunk route division.
To be fair, Ansett had mostly in-house what Virgin Blue outsources. Ansett had massive engineering facilities, in-house IT, their own simulator centre (not shared), call centre, walk-in travel agencies and so on. Saying that Virgin Blue does the same job with a third of the staff is stretching the truth.