Cheaper than a chip wrapper

There was a short feature about this on a BBC News travel slot the other
week. The pressure and power actually sits with the airlines and they
negotiate very hard with airports and local authorities when
establishing routes to "less popular" airports. It seems that in some
cases the airports pay the airlines to land their planes there. Of
course, once the route is established and successful the negotiation
stance evens up slightly in that the airport can demand a share of the
money and the airline might be crazy to kill off a good route purely to
avoid paying airport charges.

If the route is not doing very well then the airline holds more sway in
driving another hard bargain re access to the airport / landing slots.
This is especially true if the local authority has other motives for
wanting a reasonable air service to be provided to Little Flibble
airport.

I can see what you are saying here but I would be surprised if that was
the primary concern in selling very cheap seats. As you nicely pointed
out in another post the demand and supply for transport is rather
different to that of flogging baked beans. The differences in consumer
and supplier behaviour mean that pricing and costing are treated rather
differently to other sectors.

 

There's always another way...

SUTTON (SURREY) 11:23
CLAPHAM JUNCTION 11:39 11:51
LONDON WATERLOO 11:59

London Waterloo Int. dep 12:39
Bruxelles-Midi EST arr 16:10
Bruxelles-Midi EST dep 16:10
Bruxelles-Midi arr 16:28
Bruxelles-Midi dep 16:28
Köln Hbf arr 18:49
Köln Hbf dep 19:10
Hamburg Hbf arr 23:15

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?newrequest=yes&protocol=http
:&

 

Excellent, 11 hours 52 minutes. Just time for a coffee in Hamburg Railway
station before embarking for home again.

 

I didn't say it was better.

I used to go, for long weekends, regularly Aberystwyth to Berlin by train
and that was before the tunnel was built.

The promise of sex is a powerful motivator.

 

I'm pretty certain that aviation fuel doesn't vary in price much around
the world, because it's not taxed like petrol.

And like I said, it costs fuel to lift fuel. In other words, if you load
ten tonnes more fuel than you need, you'll incur a penalty just carrying
it. So don't.

 

Now *that* is an interesting statistic. Ta.

 

So you didn't actually get any, then?

 

The promise of heavily transport is also a powerful motivator. You rail
guys get cheap travel in europe don't you?

Heh. Was she blonde?

 

Free although I'd run out of coupons fairly quickly so it was mainly at
'priv' (a 75% discount).

In the GDR itself (there being no reciprocal travel arrangements with BR)
it was mainly free with the magic phrase "Ich bin ein Englisch
lokführer". Bloody cheap anyway; more so if I changed Sterling on the
black market - 9:1 instead of 3:1.

Yes.

 

Probably better phrased "sex is a powerful motivator" - anyway it was
love.

 

It's nothing to do with the marginal cost of a passenger, or anything
else.

It's to do with their pricing model; that's all.

 

Paul Corfield emerged from their own little world to say

Last year, Air France made the French govmt. take local airports to
court under EU competition laws. The local subsidies you refer to have
been deemed illegal if they are only offered to the likes of Easyjet. AF
only needed to fly to a destination once in a blue moon to force the
withdrawal of a subsidy to a daily Easyjet flight.

This set off a series of arguments between national and local
governments. The local bergers wanted the plane loads of Brits to keep
coming but the national govmt. have to be seen to protect the interests
of AF.

I had a quick look for a recent news story on the subject. Does not
appear to be one. I'm guessing that Easyjet & co. would simply move
their operation to the next nearest airport that does not have an AF
service.

 

Shillings or the old heavier 5p pieces seemed to work in their fag
machines too.

I always wondered what that cryptic Mona Lisa-esque smile Claudia Schiffer
had was all about ;-)

 

And the phone booths and one-armed bandits, etc, etc. DAMHIK,IJD,OK.

 

The East German phones and fruit machines? Their coins were very light;
some form of aluminium.

 

Why should they pay money to govts for bodies they haven't had to process?

Why should they refund when the T&C's clearly state that being a low
budget airline means they don't spend on admin and refund hassles.

If it subsidises my cheap flights it's fine by me.

 

Just look at the AAIB site for monthly bulletins. Any 737 incident
with an EI-xxx registration is of interest. A quick Google on the
registration will reveal the carrier involved.

--
Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Oops, I was thinking of W. Germany.

 

Wrong. You'd be surprised how much it costs in aviation fuel to lift a
human.[/QUOTE]

Thats my point... they're operating at a loss...
--
O
1 Black, shortly to undergo extensive surgery.
1 Red, undergoing lightweight surgery. -----
1 Blue, for Power-Ranger baiting. | o |
Numbers ... | o |
Stuff ... | ooo |
Life ... -----

 

South African Defense Forces used them in small SA built spotter
aircraft - not much more than micro-lights...
--
O
1 Black, shortly to undergo extensive surgery.
1 Red, undergoing lightweight surgery. -----
1 Blue, for Power-Ranger baiting. | o |
Numbers ... | o |
Stuff ... | ooo |
Life ... -----