Wizz, Wow and Scoot are no laughing matter for long-haul rivals

Don’t hold your breath, but the day will surely arrive when low-cost airlines stop giving themselves monosyllabic names straight out of Cartoon Central. Before this happens, though, Scoot, Wow and other upstart carriers may well have revolutionised the business and passenger experience of intercontinental travel. Scoot and Wow Air — to give the Icelandic airline its full name — each launched inaugural flights in 2012: Scoot from its Singapore base to Sydney, and Wow Air from Reykjavik to Paris. With fleets of 10 and 12 aircraft respectively, it would be easy to dismiss Scoot and Wow Air as mere hummingbirds in the crowded skies of long-haul travel. Indeed, the two airlines’ ambitions seem to some sceptics to be absurdly vaulting when measured against their size. However, former national flag carriers and older low-cost airlines that are in the sights of Scoot and Wow Air would do well to resist complacency. In the late 1990s, the then recently founded Ryanair and easyJet were small, too. Now Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline in terms of passengers carried, and easyJet occupies fifth place. Some 35 years ago, the deregulation of Europe’s air industry set up the framework essential for the advances of Ryanair and easyJet. Today technological progress and the changing attitudes of the travelling public are creating the conditions for Scoot, Wow Air and others to make their mark. Aircraft manufacturers make bigger planes that fly longer distances at lower cost. Passengers are willing to accept no-frills, long-haul flights in return for cheaply priced tickets. Even if it is a realistic objective, it will undoubtedly take a while for Scoot to establish itself as a force in the Asia-Pacific market. The same goes for Wow Air’s aim of emerging as a challenger in Europe to Ryanair, easyJet and so-called “legacy” airlines such as Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and IAG, which owns British Airways and Iberia.<br/>