Among the losers, low-cost airlines may lose less
No passenger carrier on the planet can escape the painful shrinkage that Covid-19 is imposing on the aviation industry. For scrappy low-cost carriers, though, there is also something to like in a leaner market. Ryanair said Monday that it will lose E200m during its first fiscal quarter, which spans April to June. Through most of the crisis so far, shares of best-in-class budget carriers Southwest and Ryanair have outperformed those of full-service peers Delta and British Airways owner IAG. One reason is cyclical: Short-haul bookings are likely to return at a faster pace than international ones. Yet there are also longer-term advantages no-frills airlines can grasp in the crisis, especially in Europe. Before Covid-19 hit, Ryanair was undoubtedly the most successful airline in Europe, but costs were rising and its way forward was cloudy. The company had mostly exploited the benefits of nimble point-to-point routes between secondary airports with little competition, forcing it to take on cutthroat markets such as Germany with the 2018 purchase of Austrian startup Lauda. This deal also gave Ryanair some Airbus A320 jets, even though a Boeing 737-only fleet had long been key to keeping its maintenance and training costs low.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-05-19/general/among-the-losers-low-cost-airlines-may-lose-less
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Among the losers, low-cost airlines may lose less
No passenger carrier on the planet can escape the painful shrinkage that Covid-19 is imposing on the aviation industry. For scrappy low-cost carriers, though, there is also something to like in a leaner market. Ryanair said Monday that it will lose E200m during its first fiscal quarter, which spans April to June. Through most of the crisis so far, shares of best-in-class budget carriers Southwest and Ryanair have outperformed those of full-service peers Delta and British Airways owner IAG. One reason is cyclical: Short-haul bookings are likely to return at a faster pace than international ones. Yet there are also longer-term advantages no-frills airlines can grasp in the crisis, especially in Europe. Before Covid-19 hit, Ryanair was undoubtedly the most successful airline in Europe, but costs were rising and its way forward was cloudy. The company had mostly exploited the benefits of nimble point-to-point routes between secondary airports with little competition, forcing it to take on cutthroat markets such as Germany with the 2018 purchase of Austrian startup Lauda. This deal also gave Ryanair some Airbus A320 jets, even though a Boeing 737-only fleet had long been key to keeping its maintenance and training costs low.<br/>
