Low Cost Carriers Europe

The LCC industry will account for 50% of all seating by 2027, with a low-cost seating capability in Europe of over 36% of all seating in 2018 and an annual growth in LCC occupancy of 1.4 percent. Among the 2018 milestones are Wizz Air with six million extra seating, while easyJet grows three fold faster than Ryanair.

Ever since low-cost carriers were founded over 40 years ago (Southwest Airlines launched in 1971), the business has certainly evolved and many carriers now follow the example around the globe. Attention is drawn to the fact that the carriers analyzed in this context were considered by OAG to be low-cost carriers.

By 2018, it is expected that 501. OAG plans are to fly 83 million low-cost airline tickets in Europe, an increase of 7.4% over 2017, which means that for the first consecutive year the LCC seating segment has exceeded the half billion per year threshold. Looking back on the past ten years of the low-cost aircraft industry, the number of LCCs flying in Europe has increased by 124% compared to 224.

In 2009, 29 million airline tickets were sold to over half a billion this year. Whilst the number of passengers carried by an LCC in 2018 has risen by almost 35 million compared to 2017, this year is the slower since 2013, a year in which low-cost seating has risen by 5.5% compared to 2012.

In total, LCC capacities on the LCC markets in Europe have grown at an annual pace of 9.4% on 24 June 2009. Taking this mean, more than 540 million low-cost passengers will be flying from Europe's main cities in 2019. This figure could rise to almost 600 million by 2020.

Nevertheless, as the annual mean inflation trajectory declined continuously between 2015 and 2018 to an annual mean of 1.9 points, the rise could be restricted to around 5. According to OAG's plans, the highest LCCs will reach a 36% majority in 2018.

As of 2009, the annual increase in the overall seat penetration of low-cost carriers in Europe has averaged 1.4 percent. Whereas LCCs only make up slightly more than 36% of the total number of seat ings, the picture is somewhat different if one concentrates only on the intra-European area. In view of this, LCC's overall LCC penetration is 41%, rising from 40% in 2017 to 40%.

The Ryanair and EasyJet airlines continue to be the two biggest airlines in Europe, with Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines in third and fourth place respectively. After Ryanair has already reached the 100 million seating limit, it seems that EasyJet will be the next to reach this landmark and expect to reach over 98.

Four million bucks this year, a plus of 11. One million passengers in comparison to 2017, which is attributable to the German market expanding as a consequence of the acquisition of airline Berlin capacities. This means that in 2019 the number of passengers at the easyJet will probably exceed 100 million. Interestingly, the LCC will have outgrown Ryanair three fold by the end of the year, with the latter recording a slight 4.2% rise in seating this year.

In total, the top five leading low-cost carriers in Europe represent 70% of all low-cost LCCs in service in 2018, the same level of penetration they reached in 2017. SunExpress (excluding SunExpress Germany capacity) is one of the airlines that has become heavily integrated into the top 10 in Europe, increasing its seating capacities this year by more than 64% to 9.19 million passengers, due to the addition of 3.60 million passengers in 2018.

SunExpress's fast-paced development means that the Volotea LCC in Spain ranks among the top 10 and, with 7.09 million passengers in 2018, ranks eleventh, an improvement of 26% over 2017, a year in which it offers 5.63 million people. Further examples of outside the top 12 companies with strong 2018 LCCs are Pobeda (13th biggest LCC in Europe; 29% in 2018 ), WOWir ( 19., 23% ), SunExpress Germany (18.; 22% ), Flydubai d.o.o. ( 19.; 46% ) and Air Arabia Maroc ( 20.; 15% ).

Whilst the major carriers have a 70% LCC seat penetration, a number of low-cost carriers joined the LCC seat segment in 2018, among them SalamAir, which now operates to Baku and Tbilisi from Muscat. Macedonia is the leader in Europe for cost-effective LCCs, with almost 66% of the 2018 LCC population.

However, it is interesting to note that Macedonia is Europe's largest low-cost country in relation to LCC but that the continent's largest LCC, Ryanair, is not present on the LCC segment. Measured in LCC seat numbers, Spain is the largest European country with 82.2 million seat departures in 2018, followed by the UK (75.21 million) and Germany (55.68 million).

The Spanish government will increase its low-cost seating by around 5 per cent. In 2018, the figure will be 3%, while Germany will record a strong increase of 19%. The UK, however, is currently recording a mere 0.3% increase in 2018 capacities (191,000 additional LCC seats). However, it should be noted that OAG Monarch Airlines (collapsed in October 2017) has classified as a low-cost carrier, resulting in a more than 6 percent forfeiture.

Fourteen million planned places. Germany's economic expansion has made it possible to surpass Italy, the third largest in 2017, with the former leaving 400,000 more LCC in 2018 than the latter. The Italian authorities themselves will increase LCC capacities by around 6. Can Ryanair contribute to the bottom line of the recovery?

Belorussia is the European LCC economy with the least LCC coverage, with the low cost LCC in 2018 representing only 0.7% of the country's seat total. It is well known, however, that many Belarusians are crossing the border to take cheap air from Vilnius, Warsaw and Kiev. With 5 million inhabitants, 70% of whom are living in metropolitan areas, it is a demographically promising open space especially considering that Lithuania has 2.8 million inhabitants but the overall LCCs have 57% coverage.

So, the whole picture certainly shows that the Belarusians want to go travelling. After Belarus, Russia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine are among the top European countries with the least cost-effective level of coverage. Celebration of the occasion was with a pie and the cut was made: FYROM is the European leader in LCC penetrating the European markets, with the company's 66% seat segment this year.