The highs and THE LOWS
The lines between low-cost carriers and legacy airlines are blurring as both categories ramp up efforts to woo the corporate market, says Mike Swindell
GERMAN regional and international carrier airberlin is tussling with something of an identity crisis. It keeps winning low-cost carrier awards – the latest being double success in the 2010 Sytrax World Airline Awards where the airline was named the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline for the second consecutive year, as well as Best Low-Cost Airline Europe – yet it argues that it is not really a low-cost, no-frills carrier in the commonly accepted sense. “We prefer the definition ’hybrid’ carrier,”
says international sales vice-president Mats Jacobsen. “Of course we have low costs and affordable, value-for-money fares, but we also have multi-channel distribution, we fly to main airports and offer a network which means we don’t just fly from point to point. “Our passengers can go from A to C via B
with one ticket, through check-in and you get your baggage delivered to the final destination,” adds Jacobsen. Airberlin further differentiates itself from the classic low-cost, no-frills carrier by offering free snacks and drinks onboard, free baggage allocations, free pre-seating and a sales structure that encompasses about 1,500 corporate deals and a dedicated SME programme for companies with employees of between three and 500. And to top it all off, airberlin is due to join
the oneworld alliance next spring and has already struck code share deals with major carriers such as American Airlines and Finnair, with British Airways and Iberia set to come on board this summer. The airline’s dilemma in perception is mirrored by an increasing number of carriers
operating in the low-cost sector, including flybe and bmibaby in the UK, germanwings and Norwegian in Europe and Scandinavia, and Jetstar, Virgin Blue and AirAsia in the Pacific/Asia region. HRG industry and fare distribution director
Tony Berry says, “The definition of the low- cost carrier has changed significantly over the last few years. “We now have carriers not only departing
from primary airports but also increasingly serving what are considered business destinations,” says Berry. In bmibaby’s new summer flying schedule,
for example, Geneva is added from Cardiff, Birmingham, East Midlands and Manchester, while East Midlands also gains low-cost connections to cities such as Bacelona, Cologne, Dubrovnic, Munich and Prague. EasyJet is another low-cost airline currently stretching its wings, with a new route between London Gatwick to Jordan’s capital, Amman. While some airlines, such as airberlin and
flybe, started with a model that did not fit the classic low-cost no-frills mould, others, like easyJet, which fell squarely into the maverick no-frills, direct-sell camp, are changing. The carrier is now hiring an international corporate sales team to back up its roll-out of flexible fares this summer. Aimed at business travellers, the new fares regime means that flights can be changed up to two hours before the scheduled departure time and include free hold baggage and priority boarding. Even Ryanair, the bete noire of the travel industry, has embarked on a trial for reserved seating on the Gatwick-Dublin route – a well-
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