End of the free lunch? The responses of traditional European airlines to the low-cost carrier threat

Nigel Dennis

Journal of Air Transport Management, 2007, vol. 13, issue 5, 311-321

Abstract: The short-haul operations of traditional European airlines such as British Airways and Lufthansa have come under increasing pressure from the growth of low-cost carriers. This paper examines their competitive responses. These are found to include reductions in labour costs, greater use of regional aircraft and a run-down of secondary hubs. Minimum stay requirements on cheap fares have been axed in many markets, while changes to the on-board service and a move to direct-sell bring these airlines closer to the low-cost carrier product. The network strength is largely maintained, however, which appears a better strategy than setting up a low-cost subsidiary.

Keywords: Airline; Competition; Cost; Fare; Service; Network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699707000464
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:13:y:2007:i:5:p:311-321

DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2007.04.005

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Air Transport Management is currently edited by Anne Graham

More articles in Journal of Air Transport Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().