Skip to footer

Transatlantic flights at $65: A new era of budget flying, or just cheap marketing?

This particular deal may not last. But the trends driving it are likely to continue.

|
Courtesy of Norwegian Air
A photo of a Norwegian Air's Boeing 737-8 MAX in flight. The aircraft can cross the Atlantic nonstop and the airline is momentarily offering cheap, transatlantic flights for bargain hunters.

If you can spare $65, Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA will fly you from one of three small airports in the northeastern United States to either the airports in Dublin or Shannon, Ireland; or Edinburgh, Scotland.

Just read the fine print before you book. That rock-bottom fare doesn’t include a return trip. A specific seat reservation, checked bag, and several in-flight amenities – food, a blanket, headsets – all cost extra.

This “no-frills” approach is part of Norwegian’s strategy for keeping fares low, says spokesman Anders Lindström. “I pay for what I want, you pay for what you want. We don't pay for what everybody else on the plane wants.”

Although Norwegian’s $65 price is a “special introductory fare,” several carriers in both the US and Europe are using similar techniques to drive down ticket prices.

Norwegian’s announcement comes a month after Icelandic airline WOW rolled out $69 fares from the US West Coast to Britain and Scandinavia. As The Christian Science Monitor reported at the time, WOW is one of several “Low Cost Carriers (LLCs) popular in Europe and Asia” that charge for the amenities most US flyers take for granted.

Spirit Airlines brought this approach to the US domestic market in 2006. Since then, flyers have complained about its many fees and poor customer service.

But it turns out that Americans are willing to face more discomfort if it means getting from A to B for less; Spirit reported the highest revenue growth of any US airline in 2015.

Some older airlines have bucked this trend – Delta, for instance, recently brought back free meals on long domestic flights. But for the most part, they’re playing catch-up. According to Condé Nast Traveler’s Zach Everson, Delta, American, and United have either introduced or are planning to introduce “basic economy” options that resemble Spirit’s.

Other developments are also pulling down prices. In 2011, a deal between the US and the European Union to liberalize air travel was extended to Iceland and Norway, creating an opening for WOW and Norwegian.

Today’s airlines also have more options than wide-body jets. Boeing’s new 737-MAX can cross the Atlantic nonstop, and an airline only needs to sell 189 seats to fill it. Lars Sande, Norwegian’s senior vice president for sales, told reporters that its new service “wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t get the 737.”  

While the company’s $65 tickets may be a limited-time-offer, developments like these mean that international airfares aren’t likely to hover in the $655-to-$2,755 range that Reuters says competing carriers offer.

Airfares have already been dropping for years. According to Reason magazine:

Between 1990 and 2013, the average international round-trip airfare fell from $1,248 to $1,175 (2013 U.S. dollars). In both cases, the average number of miles flown per trip has increased.

As Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group, sees a clear reason for the decline, one that isn’t likely to go away: “We are seeing some competition, and competition is always good for the consumer.”

This report contains material from Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Transatlantic flights at $65: A new era of budget flying, or just cheap marketing?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2017/0223/Transatlantic-flights-at-65-A-new-era-of-budget-flying-or-just-cheap-marketing
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe