Fun facts: the very cheapest airlines in the world

[Lucas_From_Hell]

Putting mach 2 fighters, armoured attack planes and sturdy helicopters aside, I think the thing most of us has flown more is the passenger's seat of an airliner. :pilotfly:

 

I came across this infographic here and I thought most of you would be interested.

 

The Cheapest Airlines In The World

 

For those who've read it: why are all of them on the same continent, since taxes there are far from low?

 

Enjoy :D

[aaron886]

Not sure I'd like to choose an airline because it's the cheapest in the world.

[cichlidfan]

Not sure I'd like to choose an airline because it's the cheapest in the world.

 

Indeed. Not the best time to get what you paid for. ;)

[Lucas_From_Hell]

Fair points :D

 

But from personal experience in Europe budget airlines do the job quite well (you pay for oxygen though, but that's for another day).

 

Has anyone here ever flown Air One? It's ran by Alitalia, but I don't know exactly how much is that worth at the end of the day.

[El Hadji]

I live in Sweden and used to work in England. Sometimes I flew with Ryanair that is on that list, and sure they are cheap. But you get what you pay for. I prefer KLM, British Airways and Scandinavian Airlines eventhough the ticket price is higher.

 

There has also been some debate here in Scandinavia about Ryanair not letting their pilots rest enough between flights etc.

[Maximus_Lazarus]

What do they need rest for anyway

 

Take off - Autopilot for the next 10 hours - Land.

 

Even the landing is 99% autopilot, as they only steer the plane for the last 10 seconds of the landing.

pffft

 

What you meant i think is the fuel thing. There was some debate about the pilots not being "allowed" , wait, that's not right .. "pressured into" taking only the minimum requirement of fuel by law.

[Rangi]

I would like to know how they came up with their 'averages'. Are they averaged taking account of distances? If not of course European airlines will be cheapest "average ticket price" most flights barely get to cruising altitude before top of descent.

[El Hadji]

What do they need rest for anyway

 

Take off - Autopilot for the next 10 hours - Land.

 

Even the landing is 99% autopilot, as they only steer the plane for the last 10 seconds of the landing.

pffft

 

What you meant i think is the fuel thing. There was some debate about the pilots not being "allowed" , wait, that's not right .. "pressured into" taking only the minimum requirement of fuel by law.

 

That was a joke right? :thumbup:

 

http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=6762

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-854_en.htm

[Lucas_From_Hell]

Next up we'll have people saying fighter pilots should just sleep in the plane since it's all turning the autopilot, firing 10 AIM-120s and resuming the nap :P

 

On the averages, I decided to look it up, looks like they got the data from whichairline.com (http://www.whichairline.com/news/Battle-of-the-low-cost-airlines%3A-is-Ryanair-the-cheapest)

 

Average ticket price is based on one-way flights operated by stated airlines. The average prices were calculated from more than 300,000 prices of flights operated in the future (October 2013 and later) searched by WhichAirline.com u*sers.

 

Apart from the average ticket price, the total price includes checked baggage fee for 20 kg bag and transaction (payment processing) fees. Checked baggage fee may vary according to the destination. The stated price is always for one-way international short-haul flights in the cheapest tariff operated in October/November 2013. Transaction fees are based on payments with a VISA debit card.

 

Meaning this table already counts a 20kg suitcase (or whatever the airline offers).

 

I've flown Pegasus Airlines previously, prices were pretty neat and the flight went smooth as butter. Adding to the drama it was canceled 4 times because of visibility nearing 0 at the departure airport but they booked me in a 5-star hotel (with food that was far less than 5-stars) for the night and made sure everything went smoothly.

[159th_Falcon]

There has also been some debate here in Scandinavia about Ryanair not letting their pilots rest enough between flights etc.

 

That's the very least of your worry's whit that company.

Engineers that do the maintenance are forced to sign off rejected parts for service or its the end of there job..........

 

Problem is proving it to the authorities, cause on paper everything is fine.

Paper doesn't fly though.

[ShuRugal]

That's the very least of your worry's whit that company.

Engineers that do the maintenance are forced to sign off rejected parts for service or its the end of there job..........

 

Problem is proving it to the authorities, cause on paper everything is fine.

Paper doesn't fly though.

 

This complaint is, unfortunately, extremely prevalent among airlines. I've seen half a dozen or more documentaries on major crashes that ended with "improper maintenance signed off as proper under threat of firing"

[IvanK]

"Even the landing is 99% autopilot, as they only steer the plane for the last 10 seconds of the landing.

pffft"

 

BS! actually about 99% of landings are manual ...pilots actually like doing that stuff.

[Lucas_From_Hell]

"Even the landing is 99% autopilot, as they only steer the plane for the last 10 seconds of the landing.

pffft"

 

BS! actually about 99% of landings are manual ...pilots actually like doing that stuff.

 

Ditto. Not to mention that flying in a passenger's seat can get tiring after a while, imagine doing that plus having to keep the flying bathtub going without killing anyone in the process. That and having to handle annoying coworkers sometimes... bad combination :music_whistling:

 

The maintenance situation is extremely worrying indeed, and the thing is this isn't restricted to low-cost airlines. Throw 'cause of crash improper maintenance' on Google and go through the results. One source I found cites that between 94 and 04, 42% of all aviation accidents in the USA were due to faulty maintenance one way or another.

 

...meanwhile in DCS an independent study conducted by myself found that uh, 97% of my crashes were also due to faulty maintenance, of course. :D