We’ve all heard of “budget airlines”, which are just airlines that are cheap to fly on.
Some examples are Ryanair, EasyJet, WizzAir and the list goes on and on…
But exactly why are seats so cheap on budget carriers? Lets get to that.
Lower company spending on seats and soft products
If you were to sit down in a seat of a Ryanair plane or another budget airline, most-likely the first thing you would notice would be the stiffness of the seats, the lack of in-flight-infotainment, the lack of meals served during the flight, and the list goes on.
The fact is, low-cost airlines save lots of money by reducing the amount they have to spend on soft products, which means they can charge you (i.e the customer) much less. (Great for you isn’t it!)
This is the same case throughout the whole experience with low cost airlines.
Generally, they have no first class, or business, and even before before you’d board your plane, you’d notice the cost-cutting.
For example, you won’t find a lounge for customers with low-cost-carriers.
Together, lots of cost-cutting come together to help reduce the price tag on that flight of yours.
Airlines save money by choosing aircraft types wisely
Now, this one isn’t known by a lot of people. What a lot of low-cost carriers do is select a certain type of aircraft, and only use that type throughout their entire fleet.
For example, Ryanair only uses Boeing-737-800’s, which is a narrow-body, twin-isled jet. Wizz Air, for comparison, only operates the Airbus-A320 family.
But Why?
This is a very interesting question from an economical-engineering viewpoint, since if a carrier only has one type of aircraft, it slashes time, money and effort in training mechanics to work with different aircraft, and different aircraft parts.
Not only this, but it’s easier for an airlines to replace parts and overall, makes the operations for an airlines a whole lot easier.
All of this goes to reduce the cost of your ticket, as airlines have less expenses to cover for. Lucky for you, I guess!
Less baggage allowance allows for less fuel consumption
Low-cost-carriers restrict the weight of luggage you are allowed to take on (unless you pay extra) this is a brilliant strategy that airlines use to reduce the weight on their aircraft, which in turn, means that the aircraft requires less fuel for the whole journey. (see my post on the efficiency of aircraft)
Well, why is this significant?
It’s because it means that the airline is required to pay less for the fuel, so they can reduce your fare, because it means that they airlines themselves have to spend less on fuel for the aircraft, meaning they save money, which allows the airline to be able to save you money too by charging you less. Quite the love-hate relationship, isn’t it?
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