Air Wales- Only One Fare !

[civil aviation]

Just noticed their (web-site) all seats-all flights £49 London-Cardiff/Swansea.

Rather revolutionary, when most of the competition advertise flights from a few quid (or free !) and then charge most much more than £49, but is Air Wales management naive, if not stupid?

It would be interesting to know how Air Wales experiment affects loads and revenue as plenty would willingly pay much more than £49 (esp. from/to Swansea) but, on the other hand, £49 is still too costly for many of the herd who will stay on the cattle trains or M4 alternatives.

[MerchantVenturer]

I noticed this on their web site a couple of weeks ago but, not living in South Wales, I don't know how well the concept has been marketed there. It was mentioned in passing in another thread on this forum a day or two ago along with at least one other airline that does the same sort of thing, but I cannot remember which.

I suppose where this might score is with the businessman/woman who, as you say, often has to pay very highly for late booking with many airlines, even 'low cost' ones.

I believe the £49 is inclusive of taxes etc.

Good luck to them. Any viable alternative to the crowded M 4 or railway is always welcome.

[Powerjet1]

The german LCC 'Germania' operates the same fixed fare structure and understand it works well for them. The new Luton based LCC 'Now' also plans to operate along the same lines 'IF' & 'WHEN' it ever gets airborne.

[virginblue]

By the way, as I found out to my surprise, one can fly CWL-DUB-ORK-PLH one way for just GBP 24.... Not that it is much faster than a direct train from CWL to PLH .... but it gives you a 3h30 experience with Air Wales. And it is only GBP 3 more expensive than the 10minute hop from CWL to SWS.

[MerchantVenturer]

Hey virginblue, that would be a good day out, and back from Plymouth by train - will look into that one.

Until a couple of years ago Brymon had a BRS-PLH-JER-CDG Dash 8 flight each weekday and I always meant to get to France that way but never got round to it.

Must make an effort to sample this Air Wales mystery tour.