They won't serve you food, will make you pay for even a tiny bag, and will not make it easy to reach customer service if there is a problem -- but they will, if you're willing to put up with all of that, get you where you need to go for a much lower price.
A number of low-cost airlines have had very profitable quarters this fall amid a surge of passengers looking for cheap options to combat rising fare prices. On Nov. 7, Ryanair (RYAOF) reported that it earned a record €1.37 billion ($1.36 billion) in the six months ending in September.
Data from Adobe ADBE found that, at one point in the summer, the cost of flights within the U.S. rose by more than 30% from the previous two years.
Choosing Budget Instead of High Fares
The Dublin-based airline known for flying between European cities for what, in some cases, is the cost of a restaurant meal, also carried a record 95.1 million passengers during the six-month period. That is up more than 40% from the 39.1 million seen in 2020 and 11% more than the 85.7 million seen prior to the pandemic in 2019.
"Millions of passengers are switching to flying Ryanair and we suspect that will continue," Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said in a video discussing the results. "[...] People don't stop flying during recessions, but they become much more price sensitive."
O'Leary further added that while the war in Ukraine and emergence from the pandemic decreased demand slightly at the start of the last six months, it bounced back very quickly. Since the start of 2022, the airline has added 70 new routes across Europe.
While Ryanair does not fly to the U.S. due to only using short-haul airplanes, Denver-based Frontier Airlines (ULCC) also reported $31 million in third-quarter profit on $906 million in revenue.
For those willing to travel without a suitcase, the airline offers $39 flights between Orlando and cities like Austin and New York City.
Ryanair recently emerged from a failed bid to merge with fellow low-coster Spirit Airlines (SAVE).
Frontier/TS
The Future of Flying May Look Like a Low-Coster
Frontier, which recently teased those who subscribe to its emails with news of an all-you-can-fly subscription, also attributed its profits to the trend of customers looking for the most affordable alternative.
A number of new budget airlines have also been popping up to offer cheaper options for getting between North America and Europe. Launched in 2019, Icelandic airline Play offered a flight between Washington, D.C. and Reykjavik for $99 in each direction for those who booked during a certain time period.
Norse Atlantic Airways launched in 2021 and already offers flights between Oslo and New York for as low as $250. The airline has announced plans to run flights between London and cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Baltimore for similar prices by March 2023.
The entire premise of a low-coster is a no-frills kind of flying where customers are willing to forgo onboard treats and sometimes even basics like online check-in to get the lowest possible fare. This sometimes works to score a cheap flight but passengers can also get drawn in by a seemingly low initial price and pay a lot in fees for baggage and other additions. Whether one will truly be able to score a $30 flight depends on everything from current route demands to how much stuff one needs to bring.
"It's a behavioral economics question -- airlines try to figure out how people are going to behave, and they have policies and prices that respond to that," aviation analyst Bob Mann told Vox. "It's a game."
