À SAVOIR, À LIRE... Travel Megatrends 2017: Low-Cost Carriers Reinvent the Transatlantic Market

Last week Skift released its annual travel industry trends forecast, Skift Megatrends 2017. 

For decades, low-cost operators have disrupted the airline industry, attracting customers with low prices and few frills. For years, established carriers failed to respond to threats posed by airlines like Southwest, EasyJet, and Ryanair. But even after realizing what the upstarts could accomplish — Ryanair is now the largest airline in Europe — many airline executives figured it was an isolated success. Low-cost airlines, they said, would thrive only on short routes. Passengers wouldn’t want to fly them across oceans.

But a few innovative airline executives aren’t buying that argument. They think discounters can thrive by using the same strategies as short-haul operators. And while this isn’t new — several low-cost airlines already fly overseas — 2017 should be an important year to determine whether this approach will succeed on a major scale.

One airline to watch is Iceland’s Wow Air, a bare-bones carrier that started flying to the U.S. last year, making a splash with $99 one-way fares to Europe, with a stop in Reykjavik. Still, with only a dozen aircraft, Wow Air may remain a niche player for the short-term.

Another is AirAsia X, the most mature of the current batch of long-haul, low-cost carriers. Executives from the nine-year-old carrier have suggested recently the airline might soon return to Western Europe, after pulling out of the continent in 2012.

But the long-haul, lost-cost airline most poised for a big 2017 is Norwegian Air, the European carrier that has for three years flown Boeing 787s from major European cities to larger U.S. markets. The 787 is a sexy plane, though it’s not what makes Norwegian the most interesting story of 2017.

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Source: Skift