LOW-fare carriers are rapidly expanding their services from UK airports with the aim of taking both business and leisure passengers from the established airlines.
Ryanair launched eight new routes in 1998, with a further seven starting this year, including recently announced services from Stansted to Derry in Northern Ireland and to Ancona in Italy on July 1.
British Airways’ low-cost subsidiary Go already serves eight destinations from Stansted and it adds three more this summer, starting with Bilbao which was launched on April 29.
EasyJet operates flights to 13 destinations from Luton and four destinations from Liverpool. The airline will add new services to Malaga and Belfast from Liverpool on July 15 and also plans to increase the frequency on its main business routes from Luton.
“In particular, we would like to offer shuttle services to destinations such as Amsterdam, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow,” said an EasyJet spokesman.
“These are vital routes for business travellers and it is important we build our frequency.”
Virgin Express is also expanding its range of services from the UK within the next couple of years, and Debonair is planning to increase frequencies on three of its six routes out of Luton.
Traditional airlines have responded by lowering fares, although their higher cost structures mean they are unable to offer the same cheap deals as no-frills carriers.
Their cheapest fares nearly always carry restrictions and apply only to a handful of seats on each flight.
Low-cost carriers argue that it is worthwhile for agents to do business with them, despite having seat prices that can start from as little as £19 for a one-way flight to Brussels.
They accept that agents make less per booking than with the traditional airlines, but claim that they are tempting more people to travel more frequently, so are creating business for agents.
Ryanair, which was the first airline in the UK to cut commission from the standard 9%, claims that traffic on the London-Paris route has grown four-fold since it started its service from Stansted.
“Agents may be earning less per flight than they were in the past, when both fares and commission levels were higher, but we are bringing them more customers so they are making more money,” said a Ryanair spokeswoman. “By bringing clients into their shops we are giving agents an opportunity to sell things such as car hire, insurance and hotel accommodation, and those who work with us are doing very well indeed.”
She also pointed out that Ryanair pays 7.5% commission on all flights, while the more established carriers like British Airways have cut rates to 7%.
Even the no-frills carriers that refuse to pay any commission at all claim to have created money-making opportunities for agents.
“Quite a lot of agents book flights with us and charge their clients for the service,” said an EasyJet spokesman.
“More and more agents are working on management fees and clients are happy to pay them if the agent is saving them money.”
Despite offering a low-cost service, Virgin Express is one of the few carriers that is continuing to pay agents 9% commission.
So, although its fares are 60%-70% lower than those of the traditional airlines, agents can earn as much from selling its flights than they can from selling seats on competing carriers.