The low-cost carriers are able to offer low fares only by sweating their assets.
The Southwest model of lots of flights and low fares dates back 40 years, before Southwest itself, and before airline deregulation.
Midwest Airlines, a Milwaukee-based carrier catering to business travelers with low fares, recorded the heftiest passenger change fees as a percentage of passenger revenue.
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Third, it will be hard to convince finicky Japanese passengers that low fares make up for the lack of comfort and convenience they are used to.
Miyuki Suzuki, the boss of Jetstar Japan, says her company's strategy is to use low fares to persuade people to make trips they would otherwise not have made at all.
The Southwest (nyse: LUV - news - people ) model of lots of flights and low fares dates back 40 years, before Southwest itself, and before airline deregulation.
Lion Air and AirAsia have said they aren't worried about the capacity boom, noting that Southeast Asia is home to more than 600 million people, with an increasing number who can afford to fly because of robust economic growth and low fares.
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Neidl is now less bullish on discount carriers Southwest and JetBlue, which, despite their low fares and successful brand differentiations, don't figure to stand up to large carriers' inherent strengths of international routes, hub and spokes systems and frequent flier programs, not to mention their improved financial health.
Even on one of the nation's busiest routes, Los Angeles-New York, which has lots of low fares, seats at the basic mileage level were available only about half of the days through the rest of this year in a check of four major airlines in six different markets.
Neidl is now less bullish on discount carriers Southwest and JetBlue (nasdaq: JBLU - news - people ), which, despite their low fares and successful brand differentiations, don't figure to stand up to large carriers' inherent strengths of international routes, hub and spokes systems and frequent flier programs, not to mention their improved financial health.
Delta and Kiwi airlines have said they will match the low introductory fares.
Consumer analysts watching the airline distribution tug-of-war worry that taking away options for price comparison makes shopping for low air fares more difficult.
The new route has the capacity to carry more than 28, 000 passengers in its first season of operation, making it the largest low-fares airline to fly to Geneva from Leeds Bradford.
Since the low Chicago fares can't be combined with other cities on the same ticket, people outside the Windy City can find separately a cheap ticket to Chicago and build their own connection to save big bucks.
Those lowest average fares increased the following week by 5% from the low, and fares in the final week before departure shot up by 30% from the low.
With some low-cost fares, the penalty can approach if not equal the value of the original ticket.
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Of course, if fares are low enough, people will put up with just about anything except unsafe planes.
"Changes in the wider economy - including cuts by central and local government to things like concessionary fare reimbursement levels and the bus service operator's grant, have also taken their toll but despite this we do everything we can to keep fares as low as possible, " she added.
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"It's not the best solution for the consumer, but the fares were so low in the past that the industry structurally has to change, " he added.
In the days studied, there were no "mistake fares" at ridiculously low prices that could skew results.
Southwest's strong balance sheet leaves it with plenty of leeway to nudge up fares while leaving its low-cost model intact.
Southwest Airlines pioneered the low-cost model which enabled it to offer fares that were significantly lower than those charged by traditional network airlines such as Delta Air Lines, US Airways, American Airways, and United Continental.
Last week, the small rival, which likes to fly where fares are high and it can stimulate traffic with low prices, began flying that route.
Some observers believe that Emirates is a pioneer of low-cost long-haul travel, capable of keeping economy fares below competitors' if it has to.
And we said to ourselves, we need to have a low-cost structure if we're going to be able to offer fares people will wanna buy.
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Fares on the Newark-Cincinnati route can be high, with no low-fare carrier competition.
Their moves were matched with a similar hike by low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways, eliminating the possibilities for any competitive rollback of fares.
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She has vocal support from low-fare airlines, such as EasyJet and Ryanair, whose business is still booming as they cut fares further to keep their aircraft profitably filled.
Stiff competition among low-fare carriers like Southwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines (along with the dominant United Airlines) has reduced average fares to and from Denver by about 28% over the last decade.
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