Long haul LCCs on the North Atlantic. Ryanair's Michael O'Leary has talked EUR100 fares

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary's recent musings about a possible low-cost transatlantic project indicate that he believes any such operation would need average fares below EUR100.

This raises the question of just what is a sustainable fare in this market?

Until recently the exclusive preserve of legacy full service carriers, the North Atlantic has seen the entry of LCC Norwegian over the past year.

However, it was always possible to find relatively low fares and Norwegian's pricing, while lower than that of premium airlines such as British Airways, does not appear to be substantially lower than the average all-inclusive economy fare of Association of European Airlines (AEA) member airlines between Europe and North America.

This report explores some of the key factors in establishing viable pricing for this model.