Budget Airline Blog

We have experienced overcrowding on trains and buses but now face the horror of it happening on planes.  A famous Irish Airline wants to introduce a standing area on planes to fill up more space and save the air carrier 20 per cent in costs and allow it to fit 30 per cent more passengers on its planes.

Allocation on arrival, you will be given a stool and an attached seat belt, nice to see  that they are taking their safety seriously- not!

Discussion are in the making for the new planes to install these standing areas.  They are even considering asking the passengers to even carry their own luggage on board and the worst to come, pay for toilet use when on board the plane.

Whatever ever next, they might even ask the customers to fly the plane.

A recent survey taken on budget using airline customers have proved that cheap does not always mean cheerful.  Budget Airlines are failing to provide the measured expectations.

The cheaper airlines carry more bad mannered and loud customers. Cramped seats, delayed flights, long check in queues, hidden charges such as extra baggage costs, screaming children and rude and unhelpful staff are the delights we now face with these budget carriers.

Is  taking the budget airlines verses scheduled ones actually now worth taking the difference?

New airline Firefly, a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, has this month begun routes from Singapore’s Changi airport.

It is the fourth new airline to join the airport this year and currently flies three daily flights from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

The airline is now the third airline to be based at the Budget Terminal, and despite offering a promotional one way fare of $31 all in for its Malaysian destinations, Firefly has been careful to avoid the traditional associations of budget airlines.

Managing director Eddy Leong pointed out that unlike many no-frills budget airlines, Firefly offers services such as a free baggage allowance of up to 20 kg, complimentary in-flight refreshments and allocated seats.

FIrefly hopes to be viewed instead as a ‘community airline’.

The newest cost-cutting venture from budget airline Ryanair is to get passengers to stand during flights in order to squeeze more people onboard.

By making passengers squat on stools, albeit with seatbelts around their waists, Ryanair estimates it would increase capacity by 30 per cent while slashing costs by 20 per cent.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary has held talks with the plane manufacturer Boeing about designing an aircraft with standing room, an idea initially developed by China’s first private airline, Spring Airlines, who have described the arrangement as akin to ‘bar stools’.

This new proposal follows a series of increasingly far-fetched cost-cutting ventures from the airline, who last month announced plans to make passengers carry all their own luggage up to planes instead of checking them in.

Indonesian no frills airline Indojet are having issues chartering aircraft and authorities in Australia are urging travellers to seek alternative airlines to Bali.

Ross Taylor from the Australia Indonesia Business Council says people should fly with larger carriers to avoid being caught in a similar situation.

“Given the very high level of competition with the low cost larger carriers now, for a few dollars extra it’s a good way of ensuring that you and your family do get to Bali and enjoy your holiday,” he said.

Paris is set to have a rival to the British airport Stanstead when it considers to build Champagne Airport

Ryanair and Wizz Air are among airlines interested in the possibility of turning an airfield in the Champagne region into a hub for low-cost carriers serving Paris, Christelle Riguet, a spokeswoman for Vatry airport, said Friday.

The airfield would provide easy access to Paris, just 39 minutes away from the nearby city of Reims by high-speed TGV rail. Local authorities have pledged to put in place bus service that could reach the Disneyland Paris theme park to the west.

Representatives from the Irish and Hungarian budget airlines attended a presentation about plans to make Paris Vatry, an international freight cargo airport located 100 miles east of Paris, into the French capital’s low-cost airport, Riguet said.

The two low-cost carriers “are interested,” Riguet said.

Flydubai, the cheap airline from the collapsing Middle East emirate is about to take off to India. This will be good news for all those Indian workers who have been dumped due to property and building crashed in Dubai.

Next month, the carrier owned by the Dubai Government will start flying to the northern cities of Lucknow, Coimbatore and Chandigarth, giving the airline an initial network of eight cities.

The destinations mark the first in a series of new routes to India. More than one million residents and labourers from India live in the Emirates. “India is a very important market,” said Ghaith al Ghaith, the chief executive of flydubai. “We are looking forward to a long and successful future serving the needs of customers between the two countries.”

A new budget air carrier will target smaller U.S. cities that it says are not being served by bigger airlines.

JetAmerica said Tuesday it will offer 34 nonstop passenger flights a week starting July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich.

We have spotted a deal that will take you from Rome to Bangkok for an incredible EUR 49.00!

The airline is called blu-express and have been operating out of Rome and Milan, providing mainly cheap flights across Europe with occasional long haul flights to Cuba, but for EUR 700.

We are not quite sure how they can provide such credit crunching cheap flights but book them soon because they are only available in May and June.

Budget airlines swept through the UK and Europe in the 1990s and have today a firm footing in the business of flying people on short haul flights.

Initially you paid a set amount in the expectation that you did not have to pay more, apart from some snacks on the place. Now you have to pay for everything and there is even more bad news for the big boned who like to travel with more than hand luggage.

You are the new target for budget airlines because of three things…

1. You are more likely to snack and therefore buy food on board

2. You will have to pay for two seats if you cannot fit your backside in a normal seat

3. unless you can cram all your travel gear into hand luggage you will be charged more!

So there we have it. If you are fat and carry a lot of luggage then the message is clear – budget airlines need you!