Low-cost airlines no longer exist

Sometimes you really feel like they're making you pay for the air you breathe. Larger carry-on baggage allowance, seat selection, priority boarding, flight changes, meals: the price of a low-cost airline ticket, for any route, has two levels: the basic one, and the second and the extras that virtually everyone adds in some way. The bottom line is that low-cost airlines no longer exist, and their prices are almost never competitive with those of the national carriers. Especially at airports where they have a monopoly.

Low-cost airlines, as a true business model, emerged in the United States in the 1970s , while they became widespread in Europe especially in the 1990s and 2000s . The first major airline considered a pioneer of the model was Southwest Airlines, founded in 1967 and launched passenger flights in 1971. Southwest introduced a series of ideas that would become typical of modern low-cost airlines: simple, low fares, a single main aircraft type, high flight frequency, no unnecessary amenities included in the price, and strong cost control.

The model really took off after the 1978 US air transport deregulation , which eliminated many restrictions on routes and prices, allowing new airlines to compete more freely. In 1995, easyJet was born, bringing the low-cost model to the European market; in 1997, Ryanair changed strategy and transformed itself from a small regional airline into one of the first major European low-cost carriers, taking inspiration from Southwest; in the 2000s, the sector exploded with airlines such as Wizz Air and Vueling. In Italy, thanks in part to the collapse of Alitalia, mass diffusion occurred especially between the late 1990s and the 2000s, when low-cost airlines began connecting many Italian cities with European capitals and tourist destinations at much lower prices than traditional airlines and acquired a monopoly on flights to smaller airports.

Once their empire was built, low-cost airlines shifted their model toward seemingly stable prices, but to these must be added a whole host of extra services. From €20 to €50 for an assigned seat (a mother wanting to be close to her child must shell out around €100), the first few flights add another €50, and if you want to stretch out your legs, you'll have to fork out another €50-€60. The free baggage allowance is little more than a shopping bag, while the actual carry-on bag is expensive, again at a steep price: €25 to €100. The paradoxical thing, which often surprises those who travel infrequently, is that the price of the baggage can exceed the ticket price : a €20 flight can become a €120 flight when you add a trolley bag, seat, and other amenities. The convenience of priority boarding comes at a high price: Ryanair charges 40 euros, and more or less all (formerly) low-cost airlines have fallen into line with this extra fee.

If you have to change your flight, you'll have lost almost everything from your previous ticket, and you'll essentially have to get a completely new one.

The leading company in this model, which has completely distorted the initial functioning of low-cost airlines, is undoubtedly Ryanair , which, despite the air traffic crisis, closed its 2025 financial statements with a profit of 1,6 billion euros and without a single euro of debt to banks.

In the face of flights that are no longer convenient, there are frequent disruptions to low-cost airlines. The ranking of airlines with the most delays in Italy includes, in order: Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air, and Vueling. A similar ranking, with another very common disruption, concerns delays in refunds due to passengers in the event of cancellations: the "Magnificent Four" low-cost airlines are always at the top.

Finally, despite the heavy passenger losses and the mountain of accumulated profits, low-cost airlines are the only ones that continue to receive a deluge of subsidies, usually regional, and in some cases even European, for the routes they operate at smaller airports. With low-cost carriers controlling approximately 121,7 million passengers in Italy in 2025 (Ryanair alone carried approximately 62,2 million passengers ), these companies have received over €3,6 billion annually in Europe in incentives and various support for low-cost operators, with Ryanair listed as the primary beneficiary.