Are we to be lumbered with nofrills flights for good?
Q Airlines seem to be having a “race to the bottom” to make passengers pay for all the extras we used to take for granted. Is this not a marketing opportunity for an airline to make a virtue of having inclusive fares again, saying: “We might cost a bit more but you’ll enjoy the experience, treat yourself”?
Peter C
A The trajectory in aviation over the past quarter-century has been “disaggregation” – asking travellers to pay only for the services they need – and I can’t see anything turning that around any time soon.
The trend was begun by easyJet, who trained us not to expect a full meal and drinks service free of charge when flying between London and Scotland – but in return halved the prevailing fares charged by British
Airways and British Midland.
For a couple of decades, BA clung to the idea of providing complimentary catering, but then decided to turn in-flight food and drink into a revenue stream rather than a cost – at least in short-haul economy.
In 2006, Flybe was the first airline worldwide to start charging for checked baggage, and now hundreds of carriers do the same – including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic in short- and long-haul economy, with their “Basic” fares.
Sure, there are some outliers; all other things being equal, I will fly TAP Portugal to Lisbon and Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, because they offer an excellent meal services (and free alcohol). I enjoy the nostalgia of complimentary catering on BA’s Moscow run – which has the airs and graces of a long-haul route. But if easyJet or someone else offers me a significantly lower fare, I will take it. And the problem, for any airline which does as you suggest, is that I think the overwhelming majority of people will do the same.
If anything, you can expect more frills to be stripped away and charged for. In the unlikely event I were to buy a long-haul business class flight, I really wouldn’t want the baggage allowance to equal my body weight, and would faintly resent paying for other people’s. And I would flatly refuse a limousine on the grounds that the Tube is preferable on environmental grounds.
I predict that some business-class fares will start to be sold without frills, with the principle of paying extra for extras extended.
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