How long do you think it will be until we see no-frills across the Atlantic?

A question, is the atlantic crossing on an opensky term, or is there government approval required for operating services?

At the moment that still depends per country. The UK has no open skies, the Netherlands has for instance. The joint European aviation autorities will be discussing a single open skies agreement with at least the US. I suspect the same will happen/is happening with Canada and other nations in that area.

Also, I believe the UK has an open skies agreement with some of their former colonies in the Carribean.

galdri, wasn’t it an Icelandic carrier Loftleidir that pionerred cheap travel across the Atlantic back in the 60s with CL44 passenger aircraft and later DC8 63s?

A question, is the atlantic crossing on an opensky term, or is there government approval required for operating services?

Good old Sky-Bus and the infamous 767-500!!

We’ve discussed this many times now and have decided that it’s just a big joke.

London Luton to destinations in the United States. Sounded good, but not likely to happen.

Remember how the normal low cost operation started?, they largely copied the charter flight procedures to those of a real airline (roughly speaking, it is more complex but this sums it all up nicely).

Now compare the prices BA or even Virgin offers with those from the travel agencies chartering Monarch and TUI. I think low cost will happen sooner or later. It will not be terribly low cost as is the case with Easyjet and Ryanair though. Remember that a plane can only fly 1 daily rotation, whereas easyjet and ryanair can fly their planes 6 or 7 times a day. Also note the politics involved. Generally low cost airlines are founded in areas where there is an open-skies treaty.

Don’t expect a return trip for a pound + taxes for quite a while to come!

rumers are that easyjet have set up easjet atlantic but if they have i think it is just to stop people using their name all easythings i.e easy hotel ect are all protected under their copyrite so it is probbly just that

Well, low-cost across the pond is comming!! FlyGlobespan.com is starting low-cost operations across the Atlantic during the winter, at least that is what we are being told. From 1st of november, the FlyGlobespan base now in Prestwick is going to be moved to Glasgow. The reason for this, we are being told by the Globespan peaple, is that the have secured a contract with some unnamed carrier on the other side of the pond to start low-cost ops and apparently that carrier did not like the idea of landing in Prestwick.

Hard to say. It seems that the charter airlines are getting most of what would be the main customer base for low-cost/service flights. Certainly the business flyer wants business class service and comforts. Virgin Atlantic is the transatlantic JetBlue. The seasonal nature of passenger demand might make it hard for year ’round ops. Unless it becomes popular to head over to London or New York for the weekend it would probably be impractical. Just try to negoatiate a free and open transatlantic operation under current laws and airport slots! Good luck and nevermind the big 3 airline alliances. You haven’t seen over capacity yet! Sale $59 New York to London (plus $99 in sales tax, airport tax, terrorism tax, departure tax, meal tax, landing tax, entertainment tax, alcohol tax, baggage tax, environmental tax, lounge tax, because you got money tax….you get the idea.)

I think it’s only a matter of time, and i think it will be sooner rather than later

Hey Duesseldwarf, why dont you suggest that to MON, they seem to be expanding their route network. What happened to SKY-BUS? that was a supposed no-frills that didn’t take off!!