This image displays passenger growth (% change yoy) and the message is pretty clear. MOL is right when he says “Ryanair is the only major European airline to grow traffic and profits strongly. We are winning substantial market share from the big three high fare flag carrier groups led by Air France, BA and Lufthansa and we expect this trend to continue”.
Note the only other carrier showing any consistent growth is easyJet. The EU LCCs are not only moving share, they also have the ability to grow markets because their fares are so low. The difficulty is that once a person has been convinced that air travel is a commodity, what happens when they decide to fly a long haul? Can one justify the huge price increases to fly a network carrier?
Given this situation we think the EU is ripe for a long haul LCC. As readers are aware, MOL has been talking about this for some time. First mover advantage is helpful. So who moves first?
In other news --
- NMB gets its first responses from yesterday's announcement
- Jeff Smisek on a merger with United
- Saudi Arabia buys Airbus
- Now its Qantas' pilots who were distracted
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