Low Cost Airlines
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The low cost airline model which has been highly successful in the US, Europe and Asia is making waves in India now.
Southwest Airlines Southwest’s objective was to provide safe, reliable and short duration air service at the lowest possible fare. With an average aircraft trip of roughly 400 miles, or a little over an hour in duration, the company had benchmarked its costs against ground transportation. Southwest focused on short-haul flying, which was expensive because planes spent more time on the ground relative to the time spent in the air, thus reducing aircraft productivity. Thus it was necessary for Southwest to have quick turnarounds1 of aircraft to minimize the time its aircraft spend on the ground. Southwest limited the turn time for each plane to ten minutes or less. It has managed to limit airplanes’ turn time to (about 20-25 minutes) over the years (Refer Table I.) [1] Turning aircraft around as fast as possible to the gate to minimize the time that aircraft spend on the ground as ground time is non-revenue producing time for an airline. |
