Loucoster - what is it? How do air companies differ from other airlines?

"Loucoster ... What is it? - Many novice travelers will ask. - How can they help us with the route? Should I resort to their services? "

Let's try to figure it out together, because these budget companies make flights from one part of the world to the other accessible not only for the rich, but also for passengers of medium and sometimes low financial wealth.

What do low-cost companies offer?

Hardly anyone dares to deny the fact that air travel in the modern world plays a huge role. And in this, perhaps, there is nothing surprising.

The high speed of moving in space today is very much appreciated. However, no less important is the acceptable cost of air tickets. That's why a question like "Loucoster - what is this?" Today, even should not arise. The existence of such companies is necessary not only to know, but also to actively resort to their services.

The desire to increase the number of passengers who use air transport, led American companies in the second half of the 20th century to develop a concept according to which the flight can be made for a minimum cost. How? Due to the refusal of additional passenger services.

From the USA, the concept of loukost penetrated first into Europe, and then into other parts of the world.

Initially, the term "low-cost airlines" referred to organizations whose operating costs structure was relatively lower relative to competitors.

Today this definition applies to various carriers offering a limited set of passenger services. By the way, when answering the question: "Loucoster ... what is this?" - do not take into account regional companies operating on short flights with limited service.

Typical features of this kind of transportation

To imagine what the business model of these companies consists of, it is necessary to find out what distinguishes it from other similar ones.

For example, the low-fighter of Aeroflot, as in principle and any other company in the world, has the following characteristic features:

• All passenger seats belong to the same class.
• Typically, these airlines use one type of aircraft in order to reduce the costs required for servicing various types of equipment and training personnel.
• Application of a simplified ticket payment scheme. Today, electronic tickets are widely used. Loucosters promote them through the Internet. So, you can book a flight in the presence of the World Wide Web, being or living in any corner of the globe.
• The organization of transportation is carried out in such a way as to ensure the operation of insufficiently loaded runways. Why? The thing is that in these airports lower fees, so it becomes possible to reduce various kinds of costs.
• Intensive exploitation of technical means (for one day the aircraft makes several flights, which seemed impossible a couple of decades ago).
• Preference is given to direct flights.
• The set of services, as a rule, is reduced.
• Optimization of the work of airline employees due to the performance of several functions at once.

History of the origin and formation of loukosterov

The idea of budgetary transportation has always been attractive. Decisions were made to increase the number of seats in the aircraft. The carriers used old aircraft with a new logo.

Intensification of the use of winged vehicles sometimes became so high that simple on the ground practically came to naught.

The first budget airline in the US is Southwest Airlines. It should be noted that Europe's low-costers have already studied with her.

Originally she carried out transportation in the state of Texas. Moving to other states the company at that time could not organize because of the prohibition of existing laws. To increase the popularity of flights, as stewardesses attracted charming girls. Formal clothing emphasized their exquisite appearance and impeccable figure.

In Europe, the first company of such a plan was Ryanair. Transportation of passengers it began to carry out in 1985, but as a real budget loukoster began to function in 1998. This was due to the cancellation of preferences for national air carriers.

It is interesting to note that currently low-budget airlines operate in all parts of the world, except Antarctica. Since 2012, an air carrier of this type exists even in Africa, and in the Philippines, almost 65% of passengers travel by air precisely by loukosterov.

Are there any shortcomings in this type of transportation?

Today there are so many budget companies that they have to compete with each other. In this regard, some of them began to attract passengers, offering conditions of the first class, satellite TV, of course, for an additional fee.

In the UK, actively discussing the problem of deliberate understatement of the advertised airfare - the declared price, as a rule, does not include taxes and fees. All additional payments will not be refunded if the flight is canceled due to the fault of the company. Criticized also is the fact that hand luggage is heavily penalized if an excess of the allowed weight is detected. By the way, similar practice and low-costers of Asia.

Why there are so few budget airlines in Russia

In Russia, too, there have been attempts to properly organize low-cost airlines.

In 2006, within the framework of the budgetary tariff policy, Sky Express Corporation began operating. At that time, the cost of any ticket was 500 rubles.

In 2009, the company "Avianova" determined the ticket price of 250 rubles. But they could not work on such conditions for a long time. The reasons for the refusal of the budget company's business model were that it was not possible to increase the volume of traffic so as to reach the required indicators. The fleet of aircraft in these companies was small, so there were constant problems with delays in flights. Due to the fact that the cost of maintaining the liners began to increase, companies were forced to cease to exist.

It is impossible not to note purely technical points. A serious problem for the development of low-budget transportation in Russia has become the manual control model, while this type of transportation assumes the automation of all processes to provide passengers with a minimum set of services. Fast repair, timely receipt of required spare parts, availability of transport facilities for remote airports, the ability to quickly service aircraft that spend at the airport the minimum amount of time - all this in Russia is quite problematic. In addition, Russian officials do not have the ability to quickly make decisions in response to proposals from budget companies.

The duties for foreign cars introduced by the government of our country also played a role, and did not allow low-costers to significantly reduce costs to the level required for normal development.

And the complexity of Russian laws creates obstacles for the development of airlines that offer passengers only the necessary services and inexpensive tickets. Given all of the above, it becomes clear why the statements: "Loucaster? What is it? Cheap tickets? No, it does not happen! "- are asked most often in Russia, in Europe, or, say, in the US, this kind of services are the norm

Dobrolet is a modern Russian carrier

In August 2013, the Aeroflot board of directors decided to develop a low-flying Dobrolet. Its leader was Vladimir Gorbunov, who used to lead the Avianov.

It is planned that the company will initially fly 8 aircraft. By 2018, the fleet of aircraft is expected to expand to 40.

All additional services - only for a fee. Registration for the flight will be via the Internet. The planned cost of tickets is 40% lower than the average tariff of a classical Russian airline.

The route network involves moving from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Ufa, Perm, Kaliningrad, Samara, Tyumen, Krasnodar and back from these cities to Moscow.

Wizz Air - the main loukoster in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary

The Hungarian-Polish company, which carries out air transportation, has been operating in Ukraine since 2008. In 2013, it carried out flights on only one internal route - Kyiv-Simferopol.

Wizz Air is trying to enter the Russian market, but this process is hampered by the rather stringent requirements that Rosaviatsiya is making. The low-cost Aeroflot is, perhaps, the only, truly, domestic, company that has been able to hold out there for a long time.

Nevertheless, Wizz Air does not abandon plans to increase traffic and expand their geography.

Finnair - the largest Finnish airline

It should be noted that Finnair is considered the safest in Europe. Since 1963, not a single emergency situation has been recorded. Russian loukostery, as well as many other organizations of such a plan, should learn from it.

The history of the origin of Finnair dates back to 1924. Today it is a stable company.

Passenger promotion programs, a special class for children, management of waiting rooms - all contribute to the growth of popularity. According to data for 2012, the airline's traffic was 9 million people.

Air Arabia - Arab low cost airline

The first company, which carries out large-scale transportation in the Middle East, is Air Arabia. Today, it provides transportation services to 76 countries. The headquarters is located 15 km from the center of Dubai.

In 2007, Air Arabia established another base, this time in the capital of Nepal. The difficult economic and political situation in this region contributed to the fact that the company's activities had to be temporarily suspended.

In 2009, in Egypt, Air Arabia created a new company, the base of which was supposed to be located in Alexandria. The growth in passenger and freight traffic, the expansion of the range of paid additional services, various entertainment systems are just what the low-cost airlines in Russia might envy.

Air Arabia gradually realizes all this, achieving stability in work.

Qantas Airways - Australia's largest airline

"Flying Kangaroos" - such a nickname is the company Qantas Airways. This is one of the oldest organizations, whose shares can be bought and sold on the ASX exchange.

In 2007, this company took the 3rd place in the world in the study of Skytrax. Net profit of the company in 2005-2006 fiscal year amounted to 350 billion 45 million dollars. International and domestic transportation is very popular.

By the way, Qantas Airways is considered the safest in the world, as its jets never got into an accident.

Kingfisher Red - India's first budget carrier

Often traveling tourists know that Kingfisher Red is based in Bangalore.

It has been operating for a long time, and the first flight to Habbally from Bangalore was made in 2003. The founder GR Gopinat sought to create a company that could give every Indian the opportunity to fly.

To date, this Kingfisher Red is actively competing with GoAir, Indigo, SpiceJet. As a result of this competition, passengers win, as airfare prices go down.