The
aim of the present research is to explore the factors affecting the low-cost
services, the social impact of low-cost services and how it is emerging in
European airline services. The low-cost airline services in Europe were getting
more attention from the customers and led to high competitive advantages. The
major concern of the low-cost services and how they induce impact on the social
factors are mentioned in the above section. The overall focus of the thesis is
to measure the concept of low-cost airlines on the social factors and planning
issues of the services(Akgüç, Beblavý, & Simonelli, 2018). The single line aim
of the present research can be considered as follows,
“To
identify and measure, how the low-cost airline services of Europe induce social
impact”
The
hypothesis is designed to measure the impact and influence of low-cost airlines
on the planning process and issues. The issues are higher and less on the basis
of services, regions, type of company, and cost of the services provided to the
customer. Yet, the question remains unanswered about how low-cost airline
services have social impact. The effects are visible in the field of services
and social considerations(Akgüç, Beblavý, & Simonelli, 2018).
Research
questions of Social impact of low-cost
airlines in the European airline industry
The
aim of the research is comprehensive and consider several aspects of low-cost
services and airline. Regional and social impact is significant in all the
regions. The research questions can be divided into different parts and the aim
is to acquire insights into how low-cost concepts are applied and what is the
function of low-cost services in Europe(Francis, Fidato, & Humphreys, 2003). The first research
question is listed below,
1. Define
the low-cost model and how low-cost airlines function and operate in different
regions of Europe?
The
second aim of the research is to investigate all the major factors that induce
influence on the services, city planning process and social considerations in
Europe. In order to explain the social impact of low-cost services in Europe,
the local levels and case studies are considered. The first consideration is to
measure and identify the regional scale impact and what happened on a large
scale in society(Francis, Fidato, & Humphreys, 2003). Therefore, the
development of low-cost services is based on customer satisfaction and the
number of customer and the following questions will be looked upon with the
first question,
2. How
low-cost airline services are evolved in Europe?
3. Define
the link between the regions and cities that are connected with low-cost
airline services?
4. What is the social impact of low-cost airline
services in Europe?
5. Define
the major factors for the effectiveness of low-cost airline services along with
social and environmental effects.
Literature Review of Social impact of
low-cost airlines in the European airline industry
In
accordance with Casey (2010), the beginning in Costa del Sol and Costa Brave
can be recognized as the start of mass tourism in different European nations in
1958. Other than just increasing tourism, it also initiated air travel
democratization for people. The present revolution which has been ushered by
the evolution of LCAT or low-cost air travel is considered one of the largest
and most important revolutions in travel and tourism since the introduction of
package holiday five decades earlier. Low-cost air travel since the middle of the
1990s has rapidly expanded within the EU or European Union. The cultural and
social effects of LCAT for people touched by the industry are a significant
concern that has to be addressed at present. There are various studies that
focus on the development and advent of LCAT but their effects on people are not
normally discussed.
The
economic success of both Ryanair and EasyJet have been theorized and celebrated
in various studies. Recently, the effects of low-cost airlines on people and
society have gotten significant attention from government advisors, academics,
and activists. Even though the environmental and financial concerns of low-cost
airlines are significant, the focus is more on the cultural and social effects
of low-cost airlines on the traveling public or tourists. Low-cost airlines’
proliferation challenges a number of previous theories focusing on tourism like
its uniqueness from daily life. One of the most important aspects of low-cost
airlines is obviously their affordable costs which attract tourists from around
the world. Airlines offering low-cost travel services have gained a lot of
attention from both scholars and tourists for their own purposes. For instance,
academicians study the functions of airlines while tourists need their services
to travel around the world. The existence of low-cost airlines has developed
increased choices of consumption, enhanced travel flexibility, and decreased
air travel costs. Sometimes, the cost of a return flight is only £1. In
everyday life, this change in the airline industry and a change in air travel
services has increased the consumption of low-cost travel services. It doesn't
only have an influence on the consumption but also on the culture and society
of the nation in which a low-cost airline exists (Casey, 2010).
The
development of a low-cost and efficient network of transport is central to the
goal of the European Community of creating a common market that is concerned
with promoting a sensible development of various economic activities, increased
instability, and a balanced and continuous expansion throughout the community.
In recent years, the European sector of air transportation has actually
undergone several radical changes. Expansion of the EU or European Union and
increasing liberalization has served to add new routes, increase domestic
competition, and decreased the prices of tickets for tourists and consumers.
Historically, European airlines have been subsidized heavily and run by
national governments in most of the cases. Due to the sheer number of
individuals employed by the airlines, the consequences of state involvement and
staff reduction in airlines were mostly concerned with resistance to air
transportation’s liberalization in Europe. Often, air carriers were seen as a
method of promoting objectives of public policy. These objectives included
promoting the manufacturing of domestic aircraft, increasing national security,
decreasing unemployment, and rising tourism.
The
European Community, by the 1980s, started to consider liberalization and the
structure of the airline industry was changed significantly by the
liberalization rules introduced by the Community in 1994. Particularly, state
aid was addressed by the third package to airlines. In the middle of increasing
liberalization, several low-cost airlines like EasyJet and Ryanair modeling
themselves on the budget airlines of America like AirTran and Southwest took
advantage of the competitive market of Europe. This opportunity was utilized by
the two airlines and they entered the market. The number of no-frills and
low-cost carriers, in recent years, has significantly grown and these carriers are
now accounting for almost 20 percent of the EU’s share of the air transport
market. Although this number is less than the market share of low-cost airlines
in the US, where thirty percent of market share is seemingly controlled by LCC
or low-cost carriers, the upcoming trends in Britain determine that low-cost
airlines will be consistent in gaining a market share in Europe (Donzelli, 2010).
The
business model which lost-cost airlines employ has actually enabled them to
take advantage of downward pressure on air costs. It has also caused legacy
carriers to offer improved and consistent services. Actually, low-cost airlines
are capable of operating more efficiently than traditional legacy carriers. The
largest carrier of the United States, American Airlines for example, operates
at a large disadvantage in terms of costs to its lower-cost competition. The
costs of American Airlines on domestic flights are almost 26.9 percent higher
than the airlines of Southwest. They are 62.5 percent higher when compared to
the prices of JetBlue. Although a unified model of business for low-cost
airlines is not present, the low-cost model is typified by two elements: low
costs of operations and simple products. The practices of low-cost airlines include
elimination of all in-flight meals and services, focus on the sales of tickets,
point-to-point flights instead of spoke and hub networks, secondary airport
flights, unreserved seating, a simple scheme of fare, individual airplane type,
and an individual passenger class (Rey, Myro, & Galera, 2011).
Generally,
low-cost airlines have depended significantly on secondary airports to decrease
the costs of operations. Over primary airports, secondary airports seem to have
several important advantages. First of all, service and lower landing fees are
charged less by secondary airports. Fees of an airport make up a large part of
the costs of an airline. Therefore, low-cost airline prefers secondary airports
for taking advantage of cheap costs. Secondary airports are also utilized by
low-cost airlinesto increase their efficiency. Typically, congestions at
secondary airports are less than primary airports. This enables LCC or low-cost
carriers to decrease the turnaround times which leads to higher utilization of
aircraft.
In
the aviation sector, low-cost airlines are based on low fares combined with
higher operational efficiency which makes them a commodity rather than a
just-for-few mode. When low-cost airlines become a commodity, it serves to
increase traffic. In Europe, the low-cost airline development has led to
several unexpected benefits, not only from regional airports which have
experienced a significant increase in the growth of traffic but also from the
local economies around them. Particularly, the gradual spreading of low-cost
airlines has supported many outlying areas’ discovery by tourists.
Additionally, an important role can be played by low-cost airlines in boosting
and diversifying products of tourism which can help in improving the product
quality and regional attractiveness for different industries and tourism (Kim & Lee, 2011).
In
recent years, the European sector of air transportation has actually undergone
several radical changes. Expansion of the EU or European Union and increasing
liberalization has served to add new routes, increase domestic competition, and
decreased the prices of tickets for tourists and consumers. The European Community, by the 1980s, started
to consider liberalization and the structure of the airline industry was
changed significantly by the liberalization rules introduced by the Community
in 1994. Actually, low-cost airlines are capable of operating more efficiently
than traditional legacy carriers. The largest carrier of the United States,
American Airlines for example, operates at a large disadvantage in terms of
costs to its lower-cost competition. Low-cost airlines have depended
significantly on secondary airports to decrease the costs of operations. Over
primary airports, secondary airports seem to have several important advantages.
An important role can be played by low-cost airlines in boosting and
diversifying products of tourism which can help in improving the product
quality and regional attractiveness for different industries and tourism.
Mobile businesses consider cost-effectiveness very important and they prefer
low-cost airlines. Accessible airports, on an aggregate demand side, are
capable of exerting a multiplier effect on a region through tertiary and
secondary multiplier effects.
A
weekly package holiday might be consumed by individuals who need to perform a
tourist identity and a longer package might also be taken by them if they need
to make it an authentic trip. A dynamic revolution has been ushered in by this
increase in the way how individuals prefer air travel in the modern world. The
costs of airlines, transport, food, and hotel costs have also be met. These
costs are quite important to be covered as they become a challenge in
traveling. They benefit directly from liberalization’s third package in Western
Europe. After their development, low-cost airlines gained significant attention
from people and it served to increase their awareness as well. The service is standardized by them and there
are no extra costs that passengers generally have to bear when traveling
through other airlines. Low-cost airlines also benefit passengers in such a way
that they can make reservations through the internet as EasyJet sells almost 95
percent of its seats through the internet or by telephone. The accession of new
member countries in the European Union has extended the number of airlines and
territories because of liberalization. The industry of the airline industry as
well as the tourism conjoining to each other and for the growth immediately (bib.irb.hr,
2019).
It
is suggested by Fu, Oum, & Zhang (2010)
that the cheap fares of LCA or low-cost airlines and enhanced flexibility of
flights have actually altered their habits of traveling. For instance, the
largest impact is that people prefer to travel more often since costs are quite
low and they can travel easily. Tourists belonging to the middle-class are
often unable to travel because of the high fares which air travel costs them and
they find it better to travel through public transport or through a car rather
than purchasing tickets for air travel. This issue is actually eliminated by
the emergence of low-cost airlines which enable people to travel from one place
to another without bearing high costs at the expense of in-flight meals.
Although they cannot enjoy a meal in the carrier, they can still reach the
place at a comparatively low cost which is better than having a meal. In fact,
the choices which are now available to tourists enable them to travel
independently and experience mass tourism. A weekly package holiday might be
consumed by individuals who need to perform a tourist identity and a longer
package might also be taken by them if they need to make it an authentic trip. In
the questionnaires conducted by the authors, a respondent indicated that the
advent of low-cost airlines had enabled her to travel from one place to the
other by air more. The respondent didn’t take a trip to a foreign nation before
the arrival of these flights. She preferred to travel in her car than by air
because of the high costs.
It
has been made clear by the respondent that she is capable of utilizing the
increased mobility offered by low-cost airlines to those with necessary
resources such as freedoms, knowledge, and financial resources for partaking in
the new consumption. Low-cost airlines have enabled the respondent to
experience holiday and travel by hair which suits her tastes (Fu, Oum, & Zhang, 2010).
Wensveen (2018) says that the
number of flights which are annually taken by the European population has been
significantly increased with the advent of low-cost airlines. A dynamic
revolution has been ushered in by this increase in the way how individuals
prefer air travel in the modern world. Consumers have been given lower costs,
several airports, and airlines to access and choose from which were reserved
once for only those who had expertise in the industry of tourism. In general,
it can be said that the proliferation of low-cost airlines has enabled tourists
to travel by air more often. With the introduction of low-cost airlines, there
are more choices of consumption now, in which flights can be accessed by
individuals to numerous destinations that depart on dates from their local
airport which suit their needs. Although costs have been decreased, low-cost
airlines might still be limited to many individuals on low incomes or who are
not capable of traveling during the different off-peak periods.
Other
than the costs of airlines, transport, food, and hotel costs have also be met.
These costs are quite important to be covered as they become a challenge in
traveling. Extra costs and abound access to some specific cultural and social
capitals might limit some individuals from traveling through low-cost airlines.
For utilizing the benefits which are provided to people with low-cost airlines,
individuals need to have knowledge of navigating the airline services and
access the internet as they need. Access to credit cards and debit cards along
with social networks in foreign nations are also determined to be significant
in enabling people to benefit from the services offered by low-cost airlines (Wensveen, 2018).
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