Are US Low-Cost Airlines in REAL Trouble?!

I know swapping an engine is labor intensive, but when an engine manufacturer releases a bad engine (or part of the engine), I feel they should be held at least partially responsible and have to loan the engines to get at least a percentage of the grounded planes back to flying.
My understanding is that most engines aren't purchased as much as having a perpetual maintenance contract with the manufacturer.

Pilots seem to think they're experts in a lot of things they're not, such as: running businesses, politics, etc.

The ULCCs will be more than fine. People are claiming NK will go bankrupt within a year, I would wage serious money on NK being just fine in a decade. Very nice video.. No doubt the ULCCs are losing money at the moment and facing struggles, but they'll be fine.

its two main different between low cost and low fared. it not a same.

Southwest is more expensive then all other American Carriers.

I just flew Southwest, it wasn’t the fact that I forgot about last years melt down. It was just hard to pass up their 2 included checked bags. A deals a deal 😅

I looked up flights from PHL to ABQ. They just aren't available. $203 on spirit for a 20 hour trip or 400 on American for a 6 hour trip. It's a no brainer.

What do I think? Things were better before deregulation. Air travel was expensive. As it should be. Fares and routes were fixed. You got what you payed for. Now millions more people are flying and that is not a good thing. Heads up people, global warming is killing all of us and runaway airplane transit is a huge part of the problem.

{неплохой ролик

Well looks like JetBlue are going to stay northwest based but will be trans Atlantic .

u just have nearly no legroom thats why premium economy class is rising there is no other reasob

When you live under a company that is profit motivated that company will cut corners to make more profits.

When it comes to low cost airlines, I worry about them removing vital things for being safe when flying. For example low employee wages and overworked employees can also be a problem if an employee is driving a vehicle (for example the one that carries baggage to the aircraft) is too tired and my drive incorrectly. There is also the risk of avoiding proper inspections on things that can break such as those recent 737 incidents...

The way you say "busy" hurts my ears.

The section on Jetblue and FLyDubai reminded me of MAXjet and Silverjet. For those who don't remember, they were lower cost 'all business class' airlines in the early 2000s, using older aircraft and all the business class seats that other carriers were pulling out to replace with fully-flat beds. Seats were more expensive than an economy seat but quite a bit less than 'true' business class. We flew MAXjet once back in the day and enjoyed the experience: neither my wife or I had ever flown in anything other than economy so having better service, a wider recliner seat and above all LEGROOM was delightful.

Both companies went under after a few years: they never had enough fleet to make operations viable, true business class passengers didn't think much of the business-minus service (and having flown on a few business class flights subsequently, MAXjet wasn't of the same standard - but it was also about half the cost), and the economic crash did them in. Had they been positioned as 'all premium economy,' maybe they would have been more successful.

question: how is there no legal course of action available to the airlines when an aircraft or engine manufacturers' mistakes or malfunctions cost them millions like in this case?? I'm guessing it's negotiated out of the contracts by the vendors, but come on! no warranty or SLAs/compensation for these poor ULCCs??

I once tried to price out the exact same trip on Frontier and United. Frontier charged me $160 for the flights but nickel and dimed me up to $250 to choose my own seats and bring a carry-on bag whereas United included all of that from the get-go for $220 total. The start and end of my openness to flying on a ULCC.

@MentourNow when are you going to feature jenny blalock tnflygirl?

Ahhh people are starting to realize the truth. Cooovid made the rich richer and the poor poorer. What a coincidence. 🤷

P.s. the spelling is intentional. Don't waste your precious time letting me know.😂

I flew from Philadelphia to Denver in Oct. 2022 on Frontier. Having grown up in Colorado, I had a fondness and affection for the "original" Frontier Airlines, so I thought that this version would have the same quality and excellence as the original...not so. 😱😞🥺The only thing they had in common, was the name. It was the WORST experience that I ever had on an airplane!!! These airlines may be LOW cost but they are HIGH strss !!😡😡 No thanks. I'll pay the higher ticket price and fly United, Delta or Southwest from now on.

It's mostly because the operational reliability of ULCCs in the US is horrible, then they don't assist customers when things go wrong making for very unpleasant & problematic customer experiences. They are constantly delayed and canceled due to staffing and technical problems.

Avelo continues to fly "under the radar" of industry analysts. Would be interesting to hear your take on a compare/contrast w/Breezy.

Hey Petter
Recently, I've seen a few videos about oblique-winged airplanes. Are they on the far horizon? Could they revolutionize flying faster than the speed of sound as well as flying as a whole? How viable even are they? What would be the training required for pilots if they switched to oblique planes?
Thank you for your great videos and have a wonderful rest of the day.
Best regards

I don't really have much of an opinion on Low-Cost Airlines as the last time that I flew was on a return flight from Chicago, IL to Sea-Tac, WA with Southwest Airlines during the early 2000's. Price was reasonable, staff were helpful, pilots knew what they were doing, and there were minimal delays in departing or arriving. I've only recently heard about what was going on with Southwest during the infamous 2022 winter, that was quite a mess to say the least. Can't really say anything about other Low-Cost Airlines outside of Southwest as I haven't flown on them, only hear about the various "horror stories" from other people (former crew members, passengers, staff, pilots) during my commute and during my shift at a museum.

Since Spirit and Frontier Airlines own only fleets of Airbus, they should both eat Southwest, and Alaska Airline launch now since there 737 Max are having problems.

If it’s possible, I’d rather drive or take a train than take a ULCC. They’ve become the Greyhound of the skies. Had a friend take it, thinking to save money, and he said it was smelly, dirty, and horrible service.

I flew Spirit once from Pittsburgh to Orlando. Never again! For it's Southwest or bust. I would put Southwest in the same category as JetBlue.

If I’m going to travel I might as well pay for something I know will be there and reliable. Living in DC, I have AA, United, even Delta to choose from but they’re at BWI mostly along with SouthWest. I love the reliability of knowing a United or American flight is leaving their hub and if anything were to go wrong they’ll correct it. The times are reasonable and they leave on time for the most part. I don’t have time to play the ULLC game, and my schedule is tight. I only fly with Majors. I once took South West and I ended up paying more having to Uber to BWI and then UBer Back during fare increase at night. If I had just paid the mainline Carrier to Boston I would have been ok financially.

If I’m going to travel I might as well pay for something I know will be there and reliable. Living in DC, I have AA, United, even Delta to choose from but they’re at BWI mostly along with SouthWest. I love the reliability of knowing a United or American flight is leaving their hub and if anything were to go wrong they’ll correct it. The times are reasonable and they leave on time for the most part. I don’t have time to play the ULLC game, and my schedule is tight. I only fly with Majors. I once took South West and I ended up paying more having to Uber to BWI and then UBer Back during fare increase at night. If I had just paid the mainline Carrier to Boston I would have been ok financially.

I think a Spirit and Frontier merger makes more sense than a Jet Blue/Spirit merger

Don’t forget inflation and the cost of leaving which has sky rocketed in the US since 2020. The first to fill the pinch are the ULC and LC passengers.

Really excellent analysis

Having planned multiple trips around America post pandemic and often seeing routes from Spirit, Frontier etc being offered, I just couldn't work out why you would fly with them unless you literally planned on taking nothing but yourself there. Not markedly cheaper than any other company once fees are baked in, bad flight times and bad airports around major cities. Compare that to Southwest's offering, or Alaska/JetBlue on each coast, and legacy and there's just no reason to go with them

prestan mudrovat uz ty rozumbrada

I love Spirit airlines. Not so much frontier

Please do an episode about the recent 737 max cabin incident.

Your presentation on the aviation industry is impeccable! I began watching your videos while I was living in Milano back in 2019. Since, I have returned to the States and look forward to watching your videos every week. How do you have time to produce such great quality videos and continue flying your commercial 737?

Flying in America sucks.

The other factors worth mentioning is the issue of staffing, pilot staffing in particular. These low cost carriers have to constantly expand into new markets in order to be profitable, but they cannot do that with inadequate staffing. You may not be aware of this but in the U.S., the low cost carriers are bleeding pilots to the larger legacy carriers, resulting in an unsustainable attrition problem. Also the legacy carriers have been taken advantage of the poor service experienced by low cost carrier passengers and have created a basic economy fare category on most of their aircraft, effectively luring away these passengers from the low cost carriers. The ancillary profit has become another issue, the passengers have become much smarter over the years and have found ways to circumvent the numerous fees that low cost carriers rely on to stay profitable. It is very likely that the low cost carrier model has reached its limits of success in North America and it has nothing to do with GTF engine problems.

Some low-cost airlines do real well and compared to the past are operating new aircraft, Mexico is a great example.

There is a way to generate electical energy from waste exaust. Hybryd aircraft with 2 regular engines and one electric engine for cruising the ice engines can be throttled down to 45% with electric engine at 90% keeping the speed the same.

I avoid LCC's in the USA 🇺🇸 because they feel like scam operators who prey on passengers with high prices for water, soft drinks and you pay to pick seats 💺 and they charge big fees for carry on baggage with variable costs for checked baggage and HIGHER costs if you pay to check a bag at the airport. Many of these extra add on costs can make the total costs even MORE than flying a major legacy carrier!

Pickpocket operators only out to nickle and dime you...
I AVOID THEM WHEN POSSIBLE!!!

Next up? 737 Max structural failures?. Why haven't Ryanair, Jet2, etc, been grounded?

Short term thinking.

For sure, the market is short term. Should the strategy then be short term too?

Are the LCCs and ULCCs really a better value? It seems like once you fully book they aren’t that much cheaper than mid tier airlines like Jet Blue and Southwest.

i don’t know why they call these airlines are low cost airlines. they are actually expensive for the horrible service they provide

ABOUT AIRLINE SAFETY
ChatGPT refuses to give a good answer. Can you help?

Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVRs) are limited in time capacity for practical and technical reasons. The primary purpose of a CVR is to capture and retain audio recordings of the conversations and sounds in the cockpit during flight. Here are some reasons for the time limitations:

Storage Space: CVRs have limited storage capacity due to the constraints of physical storage devices, such as memory chips or magnetic tapes. The recordings are typically stored on a loop, with the most recent audio overwriting the oldest recording. This loop duration is usually about two hours.

Relevance of Information: The two-hour time limit is considered sufficient to cover most flights, as the critical phases of flight (takeoff, cruise, and landing) usually occur within this timeframe. In the event of an incident or accident, investigators are primarily interested in understanding the events leading up to and during the occurrence, which should be captured within the recording time.

Weight and Size Constraints: Aircraft systems, including CVRs, are subject to strict weight and size limitations to ensure safe and efficient flight. Increasing the storage capacity of the CVR would add weight, potentially affecting the aircraft's performance.

Practicality of Analysis: Investigators typically prioritize the recent portions of the recording, as they are most likely to provide relevant information about the incident or accident. Analyzing a larger amount of data would also increase the time and resources required for investigators to review the recordings.

While the two-hour time limit is standard, improvements in technology may lead to advancements in storage capacity and recording duration in future iterations of cockpit voice recorders.

User
i don't think you are mentioning pressure groups and lobbyists!
ChatGPT
As of my last knowledge update in January 2022, there hasn't been significant publicized advocacy or lobbying efforts by pressure groups or organizations seeking to limit the time capacity of cockpit voice recordings in commercial aviation. The design and limitations of cockpit voice recorders are primarily driven by technical considerations, safety regulations, and industry standards.

However, lobbying efforts and pressure groups can influence aviation regulations and policies over time. If there have been developments or changes in this regard since my last update, it would be necessary to check the latest news, regulatory updates, and industry discussions for the most current information on any lobbying activities related to cockpit voice recorder regulations.

ULCC’s are hokum, in the end you pay the same if not more with them. They add on for what you pay for with LCC and Legacy Carriers or they operate from/to Airports that are NEVER where you want to go. Very rarely do you get a deal, the only time I’ve seen it work was when Noel Philips went to Nepal on Budget Carriers booked by his Wife. Just look at Norwegian and how they fell flat from the TransAtlantic Services as well as in Argentina.

The problem is called Agenda 2030 but it will take normies like you a million years to figure that out.