Locos in the back yard

Expansion of low cost carriers across Europe has had a significant impact on Euro legacy operations and also legacy air transport orientated airports.

5 years ago it was said that the acceptability of no frills strategy would be limited to short haul operations. Customers would fore go the pre-seating and in flight service as long as the journey was 1.5 hours or less.

It would appear that Europe has so readily adopted the principles of the low cost operator, both legacy carriers and airports that uniquely support them are suffering far greater loss than would have been forecast even 2 years ago. Many loco routes now offer the frequency to appeal to the business traveller,often from departure points more convenient than the traditional legacy operators .

The legacy carriers are being hit in their leisure and business segments . Many carriers are reporting declines in premium traffic of 25 % in Q1 2009 . High frequency low cost alternatives are attacking the leisure revenues from the back end . The high yield cabins are under pressure from the corporate accountants reducing unnecessary costs to placate their shareholders. The appeal to carriers of operating to major hubs still provides connecting passengers . BUT-The customer approach to air travel has changed and it looks increasingly likely that no frills models now appearing on long haul markets will have the same effect with an increasingly dominant range of services stripping out the core low yield volumes on many routes from the legacy carriers

Will the major legacy carriers have markets to return to after the latest business downturn ? Will they become just niche ''business only'' operators within the next generation, or will the markets return to their traditional levels of occupancy when the downturn is behind us? And what value their precious slots at hub airports if the aircraft are carrying only half the passengers but occupying the same runway and terminal space?

Changing times ! Possibly permanently!