Brko

I recently had a short flight from BKK to Udon Thani, carrier was Air Asia. Cost was $15 there and $25 back. We flew for about 1 hour in an Airbus A320.

I heard that jets require thousands of dollars of costs per flight hour. Then you have a bunch of others costs (staff, admin, airport fees and you still need to make a profit).

So with this in mind how can the airfare be so cheap? Are the cost savings in lower developed countries that substantial?

hscottm

I have a very wiseass reply in mind, but given recent events it's probably better I keep it to myself.

Forrest Bump

Keep first in mind that not all seats are sold at $20.
Only a small part of it probably.

Brko

You can get flights a week out in the $20 range easily. Check it out yourself: https://booking.airasia.com/Flight/Select

Airports are DMK and UTH.

fly7b2

Not all seats are sold at $20. I imagine only very few are available. The rest are priced accordingly. They may be losing money on an individual seat, but they're hoping they've calculated demand and priced things right to not lose money on the flight!

FirstInFlight

There are various models in play when you look at low cost carriers. Some of the issues are fees and taxes. Often an Air Asia ticket will price at $20 but then significant fees and costs are added when you check out. In that model - the $20 is true revenue. If the airline is covering costs then revenues can still be sufficient (100 people at $20 each is $2,000).

Additionally, most LCC's haul cargo as a profit center. Air Asia gets about 10% of its revenue from cargo - that's systemwide. On some routes cargo is the reason for the route.

On other routes there is underwriting - the same thing we do in the USA - where the government underwrites some of the cost in order to induce carriers to fly a particular route.

ueutyi

My flight BCN-ORY two hours EUR40.

Despite the outrageous cheap airfare price, I paid a hefty "fine" for checking in luggages(and lost one of them)

RustyC

I got ATL-DEN at $30 RT recently on F9, though it was a one-day sale that slowed their site to a crawl (I had to use Orblitz) with limited seats and unusually low (and not Discount Den).

As others have mentioned, only limited seats usually get that price, and with the unbundling game there's a bet they also get you somewhere else, like bags, change/cancel fees, seating, etc. I did buy one of their $1.99 diet Cokes. And the flight was at one of the lowest-of-the-low periods.

On your example, though, Udon Thani, you've got all that PLUS a real knock-down, drag-out competitive fight with not only Air Asia and Nok Air, but also Thai Lion Air, Bangkok Airways and THAI, all in a country with only a few domestic routes with much traffic (BKK-CNX/HKT/USM-SRT/KBV/HDY/UTH/UBP). Of those you've got a good tourist feed some of the time for CNX, HKT, USM-SRT and KBV, but the others have gotten WAY overserved vs. demand and I'd say UTH is the most so. On my last trip to UTH I flew there from HKT non-stop for an outrageous $49 OW on Air Asia (route would have been unheard of 15 years ago) and got THAI back to BKK for $46, opting for the bag allowance and UA miles for a few extra dollars over the ULCCs.

A shake-out would seem inevitable given the overcapacity, but enjoy it while it lasts. I like UTH for being cheaper and much less hectic than the tourist places but having just enough to not be crushingly boring. The lotus lake is kinda good to see for a one-off if in season, as soon it could be overrun like every place there seems to get.

Directoflight

They are a very good airline, modern fleet, good crews, they are cheaper because they are a LCC not a full service airline, so you pay extra for luggage, seat selection, food. For short flights who needs snacks of course, however when you do add the extras it's often not a whole lot cheaper than Thai or Bangkok airways. They are moving their operations to DMK, the old Bangkok airport later in the year so connectivity is perhaps another issue to be aware of. Nok are also another good value LCC flying in Thailand, they also fly out of DMK and can be as cheap as Air Asia

highpeaklad

Ryanair used to offer flights for £0.02. (Yes the decimal point is in the right place) and yes they did exist as I bought them.

Clint Bint

Snagged one recently for €0.99c from FR in a Black Friday promotion.

EmailKid

^ ^

Forrest Bump

That is still 98 times more expensive of what we got in the good ol' FR days

Sweet memories, a generation raised on board the Ryanair flights criss crossing the continent with self made connections for the price of a half coffee.

The eager anticipation for the promo sale at the midnight Irish time (1AM for the rest of us), zero fee-prepaid card at hand, was a collective ritual.

Simply thousands of 0,01 euro cent flights were available, no mistakes, no tricks.

A mileage run without miles, before actually knowing of the existence of mileage runs.
I use to say that Ryanair has done more to unite Europe than the morons in Bruxelles.

gonebabygone

Seconded! My 1 pound fare, taxes in, came to $40 CDN to fly from STN to PSR. For that price they could slap me in the face upon boarding and I wouldn't mind.