Cheap Transatlantic flights will return one day

The pandemic has ended a plucky attempt to break the stranglehold that carriers like British Airways and Delta have on the transatlantic market. Norwegian Air’s decision to cease long-haul services to ensure its survival won’t surprise anyone familiar with its years-long struggle to make money. But this may not be the end of attempts to carry passengers cheaply between Europe and the US on modern fuel-efficient aircraft. BA parent, IAG, responded to Norwegian’s rise by offering its own lower-cost long-haul unit, Level. It even briefly considered acquiring Norwegian, which shows what a threat the Nordic disruptor posed. Such competition benefited passengers, though alas not Norwegian’s bottom line. Most will conclude Norwegian’s vision was doomed to fail: The economics of flying route lengths of more than seven hours are very different to short-haul, where Southwest Airlines Co., EasyJet Plc and Ryanair Holdings Plc long ago proved the low-cost approach can be very lucrative. Still, I wouldn’t bet on this being the final chapter in the sorry history of bargain-fare, long-haul flying. So long as there are risk-taking entrepreneurs with access to capital and aircraft, the dream of cheap intercontinental travel will never be completely extinguished. And though it sounds strange, the post-Covid period might be as good a time as any to start an airline. “There is no such thing as long-haul, low-cost; just long-haul, low-price,” quips Bernstein Research’s Daniel Roeska. Story has more.<br/>