ABSTRACT
In the past few years throughout North America and Europe, carriers launched as low cost carriers (LCCs) were mostly able to establish themselves quickly in the market due to the inflated cost structures of their traditional competitors. In addition, changes in consumer preferences favoured these LCCs. Generally, consumers had fared well with discount products in other markets (e.g. last-minute travel, electronic products, hotels). However, in North America and Europe (for the most part) incumbent carriers have been able to come to grips with attacks from a host of start-up airlines, successfully resorting to cost-cutting schemes that would bring about a reduction of much of the initial differences in costs and, in turn, prices. Today, consumers opting for traditional airlines are generally able to purchase cheap tickets, usually by taking advantage of offerings of unsold seats available from the airlines’ homepages.
