THE EASYJET Airline Company (Flight International, 9-15 August) is to start scheduled services from London Luton Airport on 10 November, with three daily services (two at weekends) to Glasgow, adding similar frequencies to Edinburgh on 24 November. Services will initially be operated by GB Airways with Boeing 737-200s, until EasyJet obtains its own air-operator's certificate early in 1996, when it plans to add several European destinations to its network.
EasyJet is staking everything on a concept of direct customer sales (bypassing the travel agent), and rock-bottom, simple fares. Only single, non-restrictive fares are offered, starting at a very low £29. For the first two weeks, all seats will be available at this price.
After that, the fare structure will be based on guaranteed numbers of progressively more expensive seats for each flight: the first to be sold will be at £29, with the rest being sold at £39, £49 or £59. EasyJet guarantees to provide 100,000 seats a year at £29. (Air UK offers a £74 fare from London Stansted to Glasgow, and Ryanair one of £59 from Stansted to Prestwick - with free rail travel to anywhere in Scotland thrown in.) The in-flight service is based on an "EasyKiosk", which offers the passenger only what he/she is willing to pay for.
The airline is owned, by chairman and chief executive, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of the Stelmar Tankers shipping company and his brother and sister. Haji-Ioannou says: "We are not in the business of taking away market share from other airlines, but we are encouraging people to take impulse decisions to fly, instead of spending money on other items such as a pair of jeans."
Source: Flight International
