Quite right! For all my flights I always compare prices for who flys there. I don't care about meals and any other frills, as long as I know what I'm getting. The interesting part is that on first glance, there seems to be little in it, but checking the final "all-in price" shows significant savings with the LCCs.

Overall I find the relative costs of public transport fascinating: £2.20 to go 2mls (bus), £4.80 to go 10mls (train), £28 to go 200mls (train), £52 to go 200mls (train opposite direction), £64 to go 1,250mls (LCC). All for returns booked a few weeks ahead, except the bus.

When I started using LCCs people always used to say "make the best of it while it lasts". Well it seems to be lasting at the moment...

I think the phrase is 'demand pricing'

I like to think I was one of the pioneers of yield management at BA when, back in the mid-1970s, one of my jobs was to set the capacity allocations for the newly-introduced APEX fares on North Atlantic flights, by the simple process of looking at last year's loads, day-by-day, and deciding, off the top of my head, whether we could spare 5, 10, 15 or 20 on a VC10, maybe as many as 50 on a 747.

I think techniques have evolved since then.

No I don't think LCC's invented it but I think they've taken the concept and been more innovative with it than BA. They've shaken up the shorthaul market in Europe with their use of it.

It's certainly a pivotel point in the LCC business model.

Traditional charters have the lowest unit costs of them all --- since most of their advertising/promotion/ticketing costs are carried out by someone else --- normally the tour operator attached. They also operate at very high load factors again reducing the costs. The thing nowadays is that the perception that the majority of the general public has is that the low-cost carriers are the cheapest and so generally do not look for flights anywhere else.

I suggest looking at www.skyscanner.net
this website gives you all the scheduled carriers operating on a route and allows you to compare the prices and it plots a chart of all the ticket prices over a certain period --- really good me thinks

CP

I regularly use the Gatwick-Malaga route. I am free to travel at amy time and therefore the decision as to when to travel is usually price driven. There are three "scheduled" carriers on the route; BA, Monarch and Easy. Holiday airline flights are becoming rarer and rarer, partly because it seems My Travel have effectively withdrawn from the Coats del Sol. Of them only Britannia operates a daily service., sometimes at diabolical times. Excel operates several times a week but only offers combinations of 7 and 14 days which is useless fro that market.

For most of the recent spring BA has been the cheapest airline provided you leave LGW @ 0630 and come back in the late evening. BA is the most expensive for the best times. Easy prices vary dramatically and can be very high. Monarch has been consistently offering the best value but its weekend prices can be as high as £175 one way plus tax.

A good target price for very early booking for mid week flights is £50 return incl tax. Easy very rarely achieves this.

Lesson; shop around before you buy. It is well worth 30 minutes on the internet.

Here is my experience.If you book early the low cost tag is entirely justified.I wanted to take the wife and kids to Salou for our summer hols [Port Adventura etc]. Cheapest through a travel agent for the 2 adults and 2 kids was over £1500,half board with reasonable but not top of the range accomodation.
Went on the Ryanair site and booked flights for £151 return for us all,flying to Reus which is the main airport for Salou in peak season [middle of August] which included taxes! I think that is unbelievable!
Booked a hotel that is featured in all the main brochures on findspainrooms.com for £560 half board for a week.That obviously works out to a holiday for everyone at half board for about £700.Less than half of what the travel agents wanted.That is about £25 per person per day,half board including flights!

Low fares?? Damn right they are!