No Frills: The Truth Behind the Low-Cost Revolution in the Skies

The No Frills sector of airlines is revolutionizing the way airlines do business. Simon Calder does an excellent job of exploring this trend in both Europe and the United States. If you are not somewhat familiar with European airlines and the difference between No Frills, flag carriers, and majors than you may want to read some other books before coming to this one. If you are somewhat knowledgeable though this is a great book to start with. Very well written and covers things in exhausting detail. The analysis is top notch and this book is essential for anyone studying the airline industry.

"No Frills: The Truth Behind the Low Cost Revolution in the Skies" is a guide to understand how this kind of airline works. It's perfect to understand the structure and the way they manage to get the profits, Simon Calder has made a perfect book. I highly recommend this book for those people who want to know how a low fare airline works.

The growth of low cost airlines in Europe, the USA and elsewhere in the last few years has been astounding to many observers. The carriers have profoundly changed the nature of the airline industry in the largest aviation markets in Europe and the USA. The book "No Frills" by Simon Calder is therefore very timely and informative to all the stakeholders of the aviation industry ranging from airlines, governments, the travelling public, airline management, employees, regulators, distributors of airline services and suppliers of aircraft, spares and other related services. Millions of people are enjoying the benefits of low cost services. Large numbers of passengers are defecting from the traditional legacy carriers to these low cost airlines, not just those who traditionally travel economy class but also those who normally fly business class. This excellent book traces the low cost carriers from the early success story of South West Airlines in the USA to the highly profitable and dynamic airlines such as Ryannair, easyJet and others. Those wishing to learn about this latest phenomenon in the airline industry are recommended to read this book. Readers will be able to understand why some of the largest legacy carriers are having it rough and why some have gone under. Those wishing to establish their own low cost airlines will benefit immensely from the experiences of the successful low cost airlines.

Having lived and worked in Dallas since 1976, I am among those who heavily depend upon Southwest Airlines for both business and personal airline transportation, and, who feel great respect as well as affection for its former CEO, Herb Kelleher. It was thus with special interest, indeed eagerness that I began to read Calder's book in which he carefully examines each of those European airlines which are obviously in great debt (both philosophically and operationally) to "Herb" and his unique airline. It is important to remember, however, that imitation may be the highest form of flattery but there is far more involved in approximating Southwest's success than many may assume. According to Kelleher, "You can get the same airplane. You can get the same ticket counters.  You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn't something you can do overnight and it isn't something you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways. That is why I say that our employees are our competitive protection." That is precisely why David Neeleman and his JetBlue associates continue to commit so much of their resources to identifying, interviewing, hiring, and then training new "crewmembers," NOT "employees" nor even "associates." Long before Neeleman went to work for Southwest, he recalls a conversation with Kelleher. According to Neeleman, Kelleher said "I don't care about my shareholders." Neeleman was shocked. What did he mean? Was Kelleher really serious? "Because I just take care of my employees. I know if I take care of my employees, they'll take care of my customers, and my customers will take care of my shareholders." Presumably Michael O'Leary (then deputy chief executive of Ryanair) has comparable memories of his own conversations with Kelleher, especially during his (O'Leary's) visit in Dallas (1991). As he explained to Calder during one of several interviews, "Once we saw what Southwest was doing we thought this could be the way forward. We're imitating Southwest: selling at the lowest possible price to the maximum number of people. We've been replicating that successful formula now for the last twelve years with tremendous success." It is noteworthy that in 1991, Ryanair was (in O'Leary's own words) "hovering on the verge of bankruptcy. In Spring 1991 I thought it would be a miracle if we were still in business three months later." In 2001, Ryanair was more valuable than the biggest airline in the world. In this volume Calder, explains how that extraordinary turnaround was accomplished. He also examines with equal rigor other airlines and their CEOs, revealing sometimes similar but often different strategies and tactics with which they compete against each other during what Calder characterizes as "the low-cost revolution in the skies" above the UK and continental Europe. All of these airlin

Calder does a great job in describing the dramatic revolution taking place in the European skies. For Americans that have witnessed the turmoil that a single efficient operator (Soutwest Airlines) has unleashed on an otherwise inefficient industry, this book is especially interesting.The skies of Europe are deregulated, the gloves are off, and the names are changing.