This article was published on April 4, 2004, in the New York Times. It was written by Joe Sharkey; a key journalist for the New York Times and a well-acclaimed author. He has also published many other articles on numerous topics, such as Criminology.
The title for this article is called "Calling for Perspective on Low-Cost Airlines." He begins the article with some statistics on a low-cost airline; JetBlue. He notes how many passengers JetBlue has flown over the time span of one month (February). He then does the same in contrast with that of a major airline; American Airlines. The numbers differ in the hundreds & millions. JetBlue flew 836,000 passengers and had 57 aircraft in service through the month of February. American Airlines had flown 6.8 million passengers and had 730 aircraft in service. JetBlue flew to 22 domestic cities + 1 foreign city; while AA flew to 150 cities worldwide.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX/KLAX), West...
English: The sign indicating the headquarters of A...
English: American Airlines Boeing 757 on final app...He uses these stats to push up on the issue of how much of an impact these low-cost airlines are making on the airline industry. He discusses the overlaying strategy of the low-cost airlines and how the network carriers are using countermeasures. One of the factors of competition mentioned was the complexity of city to city price packaging. While network carriers are working toward structuring a less-complex, low-cost airlines were introduced to the market with that already being their asset.
In my opinion, the introduction of low-cost airlines has definitely put the pressure on network carriers such as American Airlines, Continental, Delta, etc. In the essence of time, it is truly a race between the strategist of the low-cost airlines and the strategist of the network carriers. The low-cost airlines have to structure a system that provides more comfort and luxury such as business class...