Low-cost airlines with $15 pillows catching on in US
If you wonder how low an airline ticket can go, consider $10 — the price for a one-way ticket from Burbank, Calif., to Columbus, Ohio. Even better: a 1-cent fare for flights from LA to Guatemala.
“Yes, those are actual fares offered by a new generation of carriers that are redefining budget travel by taking low-cost, no-frills service to new heights,” says the LA Times.
Low-cost flights, long a staple in Europe, are coming in waves to the US.
“A discount airline revolution is under way, bringing cheap fares, simple pricing and some surprising perks to millions of air travelers across the United States,” says Money Magazine.
“Once operating only in limited markets and out-of-the-way airports, low-cost airlines like JetBlue and Frontier are rapidly spreading their wings, adding new routes and lowering prices to hundreds of cities around the U.S. and in Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico,” the magazine adds.
The line between low-fare carriers and their traditional counterparts is blurring in many respects, making low-fare carriers an increasingly routine option for both leisure and business travelers.
Discount airlines already fly a quarter of all domestic airline passengers (up from 16% four years ago) and will carry up to 40% of U.S. fliers by 2006, according to industry analysts.
But everything has a price. Fifteen, dollars, for example, for a pillow. Or two dollars for water on a Skybus plane.
And the flight attendants are paid partly on commission from in-flight sales.
“It’s the extreme example of a la carte flying,” said Michael Boyd, an airline industry consultant.
Skybus, which flies out of Columbus, Ohio, to about eight cities, offers 10 seats on every flight for $10, with the vast majority of fares ranging from $50 to $175 one way. That’s about half the cost — or less — of other airlines flying similar routes.
Spirit Airlines has promotional fares that range from 1 cent to $24.
Skybus says it will gradually expand its o far limited network as it gets new Airbus A319 planes, which are on order. The airline hopes to be profitable within a year, even with its rock-bottom fares.
Typical prices for Skybus:
•$5: For each of first two checked bags ($50 for each additional)
•$10: Priority boarding pass (for first choice of seats)
•$15: Pillow (you get to keep it)
•$8: Blanket
•$2: Bottled water and soft drinks
•$5: Alcoholic beverages
•$2: Trail mix
•$5: Breakfast sandwich
Report by David Wilkening
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