Why European Budget Carriers Are Cheaper Than Their US Counterparts

wendover productions apparently isn't enough airplane videos, thanks youtube algorithm

One thing to point out is that even those far off aiports have reliable and cheap public transport connecting the many airports to the city centre. Whenever I fly anywhere in Europe, I always end up going to (and from) an airport by Train, Metro or Tram, with 24 hour public transport tickets costing less than 7€.

I think the biggest reason for the difference in budget airline fares in the U.S. & Europe is the lack of a convenient, & reliable alternative mode of transport, like rail service, which u correctly pointed out.

Hardly anyone uses domestic flights in the Netherlands because it's a small country and there is a good train network.

Southwest is not a low cost carrier compared to Ryanair. Yes they offer incentives, but their prices are much similar to global carriers

I believe there is another reason as well. Air travel in the United States is way more business based, whereas air travel in Europe is way more leisure based. A small business with an office in say Chicago, IL may be considering opening up a 2nd location in say Dallas, TX. And then a third location in Atlanta, GA. These are distances that can only be done via air travel if you need to conduct business with all three offices. In Europe, a small business wanting to open up a second location will much more frequently opt for an opening of a second location within the same country, mostly because of language barriers. And while countries like France and Germany certainly are large enough to have possible business locations in rather far away distances - e.g. Hamburg and Munich, or Paris and Nice, it is less common for European businesses to do so. In the USA, people fly from Chicago, IL to Atlanta GA to do business for 2 days, then on to Phoenix AZ, and then back to Chicago, IL before the week is out. Same dollar. Same language. No passport needed. Of course this does happen in Europe as well, but it is much more localized, e.g. within France, or within the UK, not so much from Birmingham to Nice to Milan and back to Birmingham. The same is true for students. It is much more common for a student in Minneapolis, IN to go to university in say Seattle, WA, and move there. They will live there and often fly back and forth to see their parents when there is a school break. Because of the above, families are very spread out. People going to university in a certain town, a few HOURS of flying away from parents, will often stick around.... get a job there after graduating, maybe meet the love of their life, start a family, etc, etc.... And that leads me into this: The USA has a number of major travel holidays, in particular so Thanksgiving and Christmas. Millions of people go home for those holidays, ensuring pretty much guaranteed business from mid-November to early January. The following winter sports season in February flows into Spring Break in March, and then it is time for graduations again where grandma WILL fly to see her grandkids graduate from some place. It is different in Europe: In Europe there is a HUGE summer peak, where holiday goers fly from the northern side of Europe to the warmer southern side of Europe between late May and late August.... and although there are a few winter sports peaks as well, for most of the rest of the year - I would guess about 6 months of it - budget airlines in Europe rely more on business travel and family visits, and less so on leisure travel. So if you want to travel from A to B in say.... April, you can likely get an extremely low rate with carriers like RyanAir, because they are trying to fill up the planes. In the USA with much more business travel, and more spread out leisure travel In a nutshell: In the USA there is a more steady flow of passengers throughout the year, where is in Europe there is a big peak in summer, but much less throughout the rest of the year. The market demand on flights is completely different, and that is partially reflected in pricing.

being from new zealand, i had a shock while visiting portugal a few years ago. i had never heard of standby lists. had a flight from faro (south of portugal) to valencia, connecting via lisbon. got to check in, they took me off the flight. rescheduled me later in the day. ended up flying faro-frankfurt and frankfurt-valencia, it added 12 hours to my arrival time, wasted my time and i had to wait 3 months and many emails to TAP to get my refund (yes, i got a refund). seemed like such a waste of my time and airline money for my refund, just to have a full airplane.

Love Flixbus. Its cheap for sure but also surprisingly comfortable

fwiw: I heard somewhere that US carriers are averse to inter-connecting travel. even in the small city where I live, one can fly in, and there you are. rent a car, call a cab, do whatever you feel, and you are on your own! in contrast, when I flew into FRA, the train connexion to the city center was so easy and so affordable, that I cannot recall how much it cost!

The seasonality of travel is also a factor in Europe, as you have noticed, Europe is quite well connected on short and medium distances, which has the effect of concentrating demand for air travel in the busiest months (typically summer) where prices become comparable to those in the US. The rest of the year, airlines have to fight to fill their planes, while in the US, demand remains fairly flat throughout the year.

It is very easy to be critical of Ryanair and Michael O'Leary,. Most younger people don't remember pre Ryanair when flying scheduled airlines was for the privileged few with huge government subsidies thrown in. Ryanair revolutionised air travel in Europe and everyone else followed the model. Cheap air access also transformed the demographics of the entire continent, with large scale migration from the old Eastern Europe to more prosperous countries. I hope someday that we finally recognise Tony Ryan and Ml O'Leary for their immense achievement. Many other sectors would benefit from similar deregulation.

That data point of population density of 36 people per square KM in the US is very misleading, as 80 % of US citizens live in the Eastern half of the country, also including a State like Alaska which is largest by landmass but only has a population of around 700k really skews the results.

I did a trip in Europe in 2019. It is very cheap and easy to travel across Europe. I used a combination of Ryanair, coach and train. I remember booking a one way ticket from budapest to Bordeaux for 7 euro

Southwest would probably be a "mid tier" airline. Spirit is more like the budget airlines of Europe.

5:50 I have been to Brussels Charleroi Airport(Belgium), that was the departure airport towards Girona Costa Brava Airport(Spain). Because that was my first flight and it was with Ryanair. The fact that we travelled 150km to a outer country airport says enough about the price in comparison to driving by car

I believe there are actually more airports near US cities than European cities. But US airports are almost exclusively owned by local governments, which means the local authorities have a strong incentive to prevent competition from nearby airports, and thus don't let airlines us them even when they try.

Just flew TAP from IAD to Brussels via Lisbon, thought I had a great fare, but by the time I paid for a couple of bags and extras, I could have flown direct on united on a widebody jet for the same money and better service and less time in air and at airports. Lesson learned.

And now legacy carriers are undercutting LLCs, I frequently see ‘basic economy’ fares with British Airways cheaper than Ryanair and easyJet.

The biggest factor is distance. The European continent is much smaller thus most destinations are short flight away (lower fuiel costs). The longest routes are Balkans ->Ireland , Baltics and Nordics-> Portugal/south Italy and thats about 4h. All the major flights are less then 2h (Central Europe). In America New York to LA is 6h if you are lucky to get a non stop. 8-10 with connection. Also in Europe you have a large competion between travel options- you can fly , bus travel is also easy. Trains are viable option but not much in international as the EU power standards for trains are a mess + every train has to operate a local loco because reasons....

I remember when air travel in North America was so much cheaper than Europe. Deregulation in the US has a lot to answer doe.