European LCCs now carry a third of all pax. Can full service airlines confine damage to short-haul?

As European LCCs such as Air Berlin, Ryanair, easyJet, Vueling and Wizzair expanded their capacity and traffic in 2009, their full service competitors have been in contraction mode, as they sought to reduce losses.The members of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) handled 20 million fewer passengers in the year, a reduction of nearly 6%. Within Europe, where they compete directly with the short haul LCCs, cross-border traffic was down 5.3%. the members of the European Low Fare Association (ELFAA), by contrast, increased passenger numbers by 8.7%, to 13 million.