I'd like to add is that I feel the term 'Low Cost' is something which has become so widely (mis)used by every new airline in Europe over the past decade, that nobody still knows what it exactly means and we have definitely seen an awful lot of stretch to the original concept, so much even that even ryanair now needs to reposition itself not to be left behind!sean1982 wrote:I have been saying from the start of that discussion that an LCC passenger is not necessarilly a low yield passenger.
Everybody understands that ryanair definitely is a genuine low cost airline as it will remain positioned at the lower end of the market (wherever that may be), whereas Swiss definitely isn't a low cost airline, but where exactly you need to put a vueling for instance, I wouldn't dare to say for sure as in fact they are often on a par or even more expensive as Bru.air in light, so unless you have no problem calling that a genuine low cost product too, vueling isn't a real low cost airline, IMHO, just as Germanwings or even Easyjet aren't any longer.
I think the term low cost urgently needs to be replaced by something like 'pay on demand airline' vs. 'all in airline' as there really seems to be only a very small (if any) price difference left between airlines calling themselves low costs and others in order to justify using the term low costs still.
Only time will tell, but what I do know is that ryanair definitely must be suffering enough from carriers like Easyjet to the point that it is now forced to fight back in order to try to catch up with them, so clearly there is a big enough treat even from higher priced 'pay on demand airlines', on condition they are perceived to still offer a good deal.sean1982 wrote:The Vueling prices are also too high to be a major threat to FR in CRL imho
Something I have been saying all along: a good deal doesn't necessarily mean the best deal: it's not because few people want to spend a night at the Hilton, that they all want to sleep at the youth hostel either.
I have no figures to back this up, but just like you think that quite a few people may be convinced to take a vueling flight over a Bru.air flight simply because they are perceived to be cheaper (or actually are, on occasions) I can just as well imagine that quite a few people may be tempted by a perceived better airline like vueling over flying ryanair too: it's exactly the problem ryanair is having right now with easyjet amongst others , so I don't think it is far fetched to say the vueling offer from BRU isn't particularly very good news for ryanair either, as it covers a bunch of their destinations too and it may eat into the portion of their passenger which pay a higher fare and which are in fact their most lucrative ones.