How Budget Airlines Changed the Way We Travel

Photo by Portuguese Gravity on Unsplash

While it might seem tone-deaf to be discussing travel when many of the world’s airlines are in large part grounded, here at Expeeriences, we tend to take the long-view. We think that travel has become increasingly democratized in the past generation, and only looks to become more so over time. There’s no disputing that there has been a major shock to not just the travel sector, but many parts of the economy. But we feel that budget airlines will return, albeit slowly, because they have operated so successfully that they have changed the way the big carriers do business. That’s why it’s worth taking some time to explain just how they did that.

Pioneers

In the United States, Southwest Airlines started flying in 1971; their fun and irreverent way of doing business won early acolytes and in 1978 when airline pricing was deregulated in the United States, Southwest prospered while many of the big names of their day, like Eastern and Braniff, went the way of the dodo. A few years later, across the Atlantic, Ryanair was born. It wasn’t until 1995, ten years after that, that Ryanair had a single competitor. That year Easyjet was founded.

These airlines weren’t just going for lower prices, though that was the gimmick that worked most often: people were willing to try anything at least once. They were going for lower…