Originally Posted by
nene
Legacy carriers will not just take a new entrant standing still, so they will match capacity and even fly markets at a loss to limit the influx of the LCC into the main city markets. Both will lose money on a market, but the legacies will make it up in other places.
LCC will now decide it needs to be more like a legacy carrier instead of an LCC to compete. This is where we are at now. In a way, all of the LCC's in the US have followed this general path. Some are just more further along than others. Breeze is at the beginning and Spirit has run the course.
I think they definitely started out defending their turf, but then discovered that there is money to be made in coach. They're attracting new customers who are also spending good money to upgrade into economy plus sections of their cabins and it has become a significant percentage of their total revenue.
LCC's will have to adapt to this market just like the legacies adapted to the reduction in business travel bookings post pandemic. I also think that it will have to be a lot more than just bigger seats. They'll need to provide frequency, better customer service (the legacies haven't exactly set the bar that high), WiFi, inflight entertainment, etc.