It may sound funny at first, but the cheapest airlines Ryanair and Easyjet have the most modern aircraft on the market.According to several German television documentary This is surprisingly just related to the generous savings drive of the airlines. For years he was standardized aircraft market, all airlines bought the same models, it is said in doku. Cheap airlines such as Ryanair changed the aircraft market
With the low-cost airlines, this changed. They order many new aircraft that use less fuel and can carry more passengers. The EasyJet A320neo consumes about 15 percent less fuel and has up to 186 seats.
The cheap prices are made possible primarily by two things: thriftiness and efficiency. For example, you often have to pay extra for items of luggage because they are not included in the fare.
The enormous reduction in downtime allows low-cost airlines to offer more flights in one day, transporting more passengers. Easyjet reduced its life to about 25 minutes, other airlines need twice as long.
They buy the most new and efficient aircraft to save on fuel costs. They also need to replace aircraft a bit more often then standard airlines because they use them so much.
In addition to the fuel efficiency part, the budget airlines buy new planes in order to reduce maintenance cost which increase with the age of the airframe.
The most modern planes are the most fuel efficient ones. Can’t fly a plane that takes so much fuel and expect cheap fares. I guess there are some exceptions such as Allegiant Air is high flies old aircraft, they bought them for cheap even though they are plagued with mechanics issues.
Also the budget airlines usually have one type of plane or similar so problems are easier to fix. Example Ryanair 737s and Easyjet a320 family
The aircraft flown by Ryan and Easy play just a small row when it comes to their ticket prices.Yes, Ryan and Easy order a large number of aircraft so they will receive industry standard discounts and having just one aircraft type in their fleet reduces maintenance and type rating costs.These 2 factors are not what makes their tickets cheap. Let us talk about Ryanair, here are some more important factors that reduce their ticket prices:
Their 737 fleet is equipped with airstairs, they do not use gate positions with jetbridges, cost extra money
All of their 737 have the seats where you cant recline your backrest. Saves maintenance cost.
No IFE, no internet on board. No purchase, installation, maintenance cost.
No free inflight meal and drink service. All has to be paid extra.
Reduce layover cost as the crews end their duty days at their origin airport as much as possible
Their cabin is full of advertisements from companies, adds extra money.
No cleaning service between the flights, the cabin crew must clean everything by their own and this in very short turn around times.
When you compare ticket prices of Lufthansa and Ryanair when you book just one day in advance there is just a difference of approx. 30 Euro.
Yes you are right, they have the most modern fleets, but in the end, it is the numbers that count for an airline. For example FY2017:
Ryanair: Employees: 13.000
Fleet size: 443
Net income 2017: 1.2 Billion Euro
Avg. Fleet age: 5.5 Years
Lufthansa: Employees: 130.000
Fleet size: 285
Net income 2017: 2.6 Billion Euro
Avg. Fleet age: 12.1 Years
I think another key reason is unlike legacy carriers these airlines started fresh with no old aircraft. If legacy airlines started at the same times as Ryan air and easy jet they would of likely had just as an modern fleet.
Leagacy airlines such as Air New Zealand due to there small fleet size can modernise there fleet very easily / quickly. But most legacy airlines such as Lufthansa due to there large fleet size take a long time to modernise their fleet.
