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Airlines vary in size, from small domestic airlines to full-service international airlines.
Airline services can be categorized as being intercontinental, domestic, regional, or
international, and may be operated as scheduled services or charters.
The aviation industry is characterized by constant change. The ongoing liberalization of
markets, technological progress and the establishment of new business models are just a
few examples that illustrate the dynamic development of air transportation within the last
years. The fact that there are various fields of development indicates that the industry
development is not only influenced by the industry actors themselves, but also by its
structures and institutional surroundings. In turn, the development of the industry shapes
its actors and competition structures. The interdependencies among the different
stakeholders in aviation and the continuous industry development thereby constantly raise
new questions for both theory and practice.
When talking about the aviation industry, airline types can be identified by dividing them
into different groups. One method for example is to divide them into: cargo flights,
general aviation, regional carriers, charter airlines, full-service carriers, and low-cost
carriers. Cargo flights consist of freight carriers like FedEx and DHL. General-aviation
for example consists of private business jets. Both cargo flights and general-aviation are
not taken into account here any further. Regional carriers are more locally oriented and
traditionally act as commuter or feeder airlines, for larger carriers. Although charter
carriers also consist of freighter airline, we will focus on passenger charter airlines. These
charters traditionally offer flights for a certain period of time a year, mostly during
holiday seasons. Full-service carriers can be seen as the counterpart of low-cost carriers.
KLM-Air France and Lufthansa are examples of full-service carriers. Last but not least
are the low-cost carriers. The next section will be all about these special kind of carriers.
Discount airlines, No frills airlines, Prizefighters, Low-cost airlines, or low-cost carriers,
all are different names for the same phenomenon: airlines which offer cheaper tickets
compared to other carriers. But when is an airline a low-cost carrier? What exactly is the
definition of 'low-cost carriers'?
First of all, it’s not the carrier itself which makes it a low-cost carrier, but it is the
operating model that makes the difference. So in this way it would be better to speak of a
low-cost model, which is based on reducing all kind of complexity costs. By reducing
these complexity costs, it becomes possible to offer the same ticket for a much lower
price. Probably the most famous examples of low-cost carriers are EasyJet and Ryanair.
In recent years, there has been an industry-wide shakedown, which will have far-reaching
effects on the industry's trend towards expanding domestic and international services. In
the past, the airline industry was at least partly government owned. This is still true in
many countries, but in the U.S. all major airlines have come to be privately held.
The airline industry can be separated into four categories by the U.S. Department of
Transportation (DOT):