sourdough44

Each poster can be smarter than the previous. Time for the kraken to clear the field.

bonvoyage

I don’t think the failing is “sudden”. It’s been put off by the Covid money and pent up post Covid travel demand. Now the industry is finally seeing it. ULCCs started downhill at the end of the ‘teens

nene

Agreed, the ULCC's (and SWA the original LCC) lost their way when they changed business plans. They're unique benefit is the non-stop routes. Even using smaller airports is a benefit to the infrequent traveler as easier to park, travel into/out of. I even fly them when a nonstop with a reasonable frequency is available. They seem to begin this way, but migrate towards competing with the legacies to earn "business travelers" etc and then find out the legacies will defend their turf and have other revenue streams to support them in the aggregate.

SWA used to serve many more non-stop from my market last decade than they do now. They are great if you want to go to HOU, BWI, BNA from here, most of the other nonstops have dried up. So now to use SWA I have to connect just like every legacy, often with often less frequency.

Now if your going to do a nonstop thin route, you at least have to be dependable. When you strand people for days/weeks on routes that there is no other option, it makes people leery to try again. So to run a successful ULCC you need to find non-stop routes that bypass the big cities and run a stable operation. Quit chasing the biz traveller or the big cities.

If you want to be a startup network carrier, like Jet Blue, then run your hubs but you need to have a reason for your customers to flock to your product over the legacies.

Werjower

Sun Country does pretty ok considering the whole operation is out of MSP vs Delta (and some summer stuff out of DFW vs AA)