In general, count me among those who'd prefer to see little-utilized fora eliminated.
Since it's being actively discussed, all of the budget airline threads should be moved to their respective "other airlines" fora, and the four budget fora should be eliminated. They seem to have been added somewhat arbitrarily, and their value, in terms of adding clarity, facilitating site navigation and/or effectively managing content, has been negligible at best. (They seem to actually cause confusion and complicate navigation and content management.)
In addition, slightly off-topic but actually a related point, the three Somewhere-Based Airlines fora (see
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...nes-forum.html) are nothing more than "Other Airlines" fora with a bit more specificity and a different naming convention. IMO, for the sake of consistency, it would be much more logical for them to be renamed and listed among the other "other airlines" fora.
The reformatted index would look something like this:
Airlines and Mileage ProgramsAegean Airlines | Miles&Bonus
Aer Lingus | Gold Circle Club
... <snip> ...
Virgin Australia | Velocity
WestJet | WestJet Rewards
Other Airlines of Africa and the Middle East
Other Airlines of the Americas (except Hawaii)
Other Airlines of Asia and Oceania (except India)
Other Airlines of Europe and Russia
Other Airlines of Hawaii
Other Airlines of India
Global Airline Alliances In my experience, systems with more uniformity and less fragmentation lead to a better user experience.