Bolstered by cheap fuel and a booming U.S. Dollar, it really has never been a better time fo fly.
2017 saw a breathtaking 3000 new pairings announced and the United States leads the way, with twice as many route launches from the U.S.A. than any other country.
Ryanair leads the way
The clear winner, on the route innovation front, is Irish Low-Budget carrier Ryan Air.Last year was a tie with fellow budget airline Easyjet, but this year Ryan Air, headed by CEO Michael O’Leary, easily beat Easyjet and another rival Wizzair, for the top spot.
Brand New Routes Surge
Particularly good news for travelers is that 55% of the new routes were not served by any other airline i.e. entirely new and never flown between before. It is noticeable that the average frequency of the flights ranges from 3.4-4.9 times a week which means that daily services are an exception to the rule. To check out the new routes go to http://www.paylessflights.com
European Low-Cost Carriers Predominate
As we mentioned earlier in this article, European low-cost carriers dominate in the market; of the 2016 leaders 13 of 20 are European based and, with the exception of Flybe, all can be considered budget airlines.
Of the remaining seven carriers, six are based in the U.S. and of those three ( China Eastern, Delta, and American Airlines) can be described as traditional airlines. Allegiant, Frontier, Spirit and Southwest contribute the low-cost or ultra low-cost contingent. Cheap flights continue to be a feature.
New Start Trend set to continue
The U.S. was the obvious victor in new starts, but Spain gets an honorable mention as the country with the most new airline services (the UK and Germany were close on their heels, though).
For 2017, 1150 new services are already known about, with a confident prediction that a further 2000 will be added to that total.All in all, across 2015-17, there is a remarkable consistency of over 3000 new routes per year. European national carriers such as British Airways, Alitalia and S.A.S. have already announced their intention to start a minimum of ten new routes each in 2017.
Flying just keeps getting easier and cheaper.A clear win-win for all concerned.
