richardab

I was just looking for a one way fare between London and Paris on BMI, British Midland and the fare came up as a "tiny" fare for 2GBP plus tax. The total fare was GBP 29 one way. How the heck to they make money when all they collect is 2 pounds?

I wonder if this is a bus ride across the channel!

David_London

Richard

BMI are no longer a full service airline on most of their european routes and have joined the "no frills" brigade. The "Tiny" fares are usually marketed as BMIBaby flights so you will have to purchase food and drinks etc. It's not uncommon for the low cost careers to offer fares as low as £2 and if you look at Ryanair you will often see fares as low as £0.03p, or even free, and you only pay the taxes.

richardab

I guess they must get their profits from passengers who book at the last minute or fly BMI as a Lufthansa codeshare.

flanneruk

But of course the question still remains: "how do they make any money?"

Richardab partly answers the question: this might be unfair to bmi, but on Ryanair, it's not 99p or whatever plus tax. It's 99p plus tax plus a slew of charges that Ryanair conjure up from thin air, all coming to more than their real cost.

Then there's whatever an airline can screw out of the airport (in many cases low-cost airlines get paid to use a destination). There's revenue from the sandwiches, the drinks, the bingo (I swear!).

And then there's what you can make from excess baggage.

Ryanair have actually publicly announced their long-term policy of making so much from ancillary revenue they don't need to charge customers.

Blarney of course, and not needing to charge is very different from not charging. But low-costs really might have a fundamentally different business model. Though lots of businesses have said that just before the bubble burst.

willit

As as been said before, a lot of the money they make through late bookings, or "extras".

For Example, I booked a return flight to Palermo from London on Ryanair for under 3 GBP each way. Apart from the fare, I was charged Tax (Nothing they can do about that) plus a "Debit card surcharge" of about £2 per ticket, per leg of journey. This put the combined price of tickets for two to over 50 GBP.

I am not complaining as it is still stupidly cheap - My wife and I can fly to Sicily from London for the cost of a reasonable meal.

I love budget airlines as they have forced other airlines to lower their prices, which has allowed me to travel often. In the late 1990's I was quoted nearly 300 GBP for a return flight to Naples. Now I can get there for well under 100GBP.

richardab

I like to get a free sandwich on my airline!

Patrick

And when the airline charges you 100 pounds instead of 2 pounds but gives you a free sandwich, are you still happy?

rex

<<a slew of charges that Ryanair conjure up from thin air...>>

My lifetime experience with Ryanair is 19 passenger-segments flown (me and my family combined), and never once have we faced any added charges, conjured or otherwise.

It is true, we elected NOT to buy their bottled water.

Best wishes,

Rex

Where2Travel

I think Flanner is referring to the "taxes, fees and charges" amount that Ryanair add onto these £0.03, £2 or whatever low fares people quote.

Easyjet's charges are often as low as £5 whereas Ryanair's are normally about £10-£15.

Apart from taxes, what are these charges made up of?

rex

No, those costs, whatever they reflect, are fully disclosed and known at the tie the ticket is sold. Flanner seems to be suggesting other added charges collected at the airport or on board. My experience suggests that such charges are rare, avoidable or both.

flanneruk

Flanner is not suggesting Ryanair add on charges at the airport.

What Flanner is stating bald out is that the difference between the 99p Ryanair advertises a ticket at and the £20 you end up paying is NOT simply made up of tax.

Try any dummy booking, follow it through to the end and you'll find the add-ons (inevitably greater than Easyjet impose) include things even American airport-based car hire companies would blush to try and con their customers into paying.

Those gold-plated charges help Ryanair's bottom line. And they are imposed every time.

WillTravel

An airplane is charged a set amount of tax when it lands at an airport, regardless of how many people are on board. So part of the low-cost airlines' passenger load consists of people who help pay for this tax, but little more than that. The airline is better off having full planes, even if this means some people are paying only a proportionate share of the tax and little or nothing else.

I flew BMI from London to Paris on one of these budget fares (although I think my base was more like 8 pounds), and was upgraded to business class when we volunteered to be bumped.