Low Cost Airlines: Long-haul low cost, being ‘stuck in the middle’ and consolidation

Increasingly the weight of opinion (and activity) is towards the evolution of the LCC model, as local conditions and the global market dictate. Inevitably this implies progressive convergence operationally with the full service carriers, including such features as international operation, long haul service and growing connectivity. Last year's fuel price surge and now the global economic downturn have greatly accelerated this process.