MAJOR European airlines will follow British Airways and launch low-cost carriers, Go’s chief executive Barbara Cassani has predicted.
She said many will also follow examples set by US carriers which have set up low-cost subsidiaries to service key cities. Cassani said the new airlines will be launched soon because existing no-frills carriers will continue to grow rapidly.
She said:”The major carriers will experiment with different ways of fighting it and then start participating in their own ways. They may choose to emulate the US carriers, but they will probably do so in less than the 10 years it took their US counterparts.”
Lufthansa is already looking at a low-cost option, while KLM and Swissair are believed to be studying their own plans.
Cassini, in a speech to the Royal Aeronautical Society in central London last Tuesday, added Go, EasyJet, and Ryanair will be triple their size in 10 years, with BA’s Go having several bases in Europe.
n Go is bringing forward the launch of its Stansted-Bilbao flights to April 29 due to the early delivery of a newBoeing 737.