A world taking wing: low- cost carriers and the ascent of the many

Together, these advantages make for a wide disparity in average costs (Table 7.3). It should be emphasized, however, that, first, not all of these distinctions are sustainable and, second, some of the LCCs’ strategies have already been embraced by network carriers. So in the future it is likely to become harder to clearly separate the two kinds of airlines. We will return to this point in the final section of this chapter, but first we turn to the story of the LCCs’ origins and how they have spread.