Originally Posted by
IAN-UK
The key advantage in the LCC approach, over that entrenched in the legacy carriers' business models, is maintaining the thin management you allude to. They can do this by flying to places where they offer no connections; maintain little or no infrastructure, long-term contracts or hierarchies of management - and very little customer service
Well said.
I find it interesting that, for example, as WN continues to grow and provide more of a hub-and-spoke route structure in the USA (and now Mexico), they seem to be morphing into something that starts to resemble a mainline carrier, and their pricing seems (IME) to reflect increasing operating costs to support the larger network structure...as a result, WN is also starting to offer some "premium" services (e.g. Business Select product, with priority check-in, security, and boarding, etc.) to attract higher fare-paying (but still price sensitive) customers...
I still can't imagine a lean-enough organization growing out of an LH or AF to make an LCC operation work in the long run. 4U is an interesting laboratory to me.