Originally Posted by
captnate702
Ryan Air is the Southwest of Europe. Single fleet type. Secondary airports. High utilization. Hedge on fuel. Point to point flying. There definitely differences, but the similarities are crucial to their success.
The customer facing operation (free bags vs a la cart) has differences but Southwest captured the domestic market when it was significantly lower fares than the legacies.
O’Leary has talked at length about how Southwest was a model in creating Ryan Air.
No they're not. Ryanair the allegiant of Europe. Charge for everything. Tell the customers to shove it once you have their money. Pay the crew peanuts. Massively anti-labor unions. Unfortunately for Maury, he isn't good at copying their model, but not because he hasn't tried.
If Europe has a SWA, it's EasyJet.
Originally Posted by
captnate702
I think you will see consolidation within the ULCCs. The pricing and business model of high-utilization ULCCs is proven in Europe (Ryan Air, Easy Jet, Wizz, etc.) and is a power. The LCC model is dominant in the US because its basically WN and then some others. WN is getting bloated and their prices are rarely the lowest, so I do think that there is still a demand for ULCC in the US but I doubt it will ever get to the market size of Ryan Air and Easy Jet because Southwest already assumed that vacuum.
First of all SWA is not a ULCC. It's a legacy with an unconventional business model.
Second, how much more consolidation is possible? JB is taking NK and JB is hardly even an LCC anymore. NK and their business model will go away. F9 seems poised to inherit the market sector and take advantage of the vacuum. SWA may punch down too. Allegiant is a crap show and the best merger they could hope for is an Avelo/Breeze/SCA thing. Probably not even in the drivers seat. Seems to me like the consolidation just happened and not much more that makes a difference is possible. Frontier is in a really good place right now. Alaska is going to have to do something though.