English: Air Asia X Airbus A340-300 (9M-XAB) approaching Stansted Airport (STN) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This article from the Economist is well worth a read. Check it out!

Low-cost airlines in Asia: Too much of a good thing | The Economist.

Personally, I do not entirely agree with the Economist’s article.

In the last two years, I have traveled extensively within Asia on both full service and budget airlines. In my experience the best budget airlines, like Air Asia, exceed many full service airlines, including award winning airlines like Etihad.

I agree with the Economist that the next challenge will be for budget airlines to move into the long haul market (greater than four hours). I’m not sure that the Economist article is entirely accurate here, since Air Asia is already operating in this market, flying from Australia to Asia.

For me, many so-called full service airlines are only surviving because of profits on long-haul routes. Many of these full service airlines provide poor service, planes that are not clean and disgraceful food. In my view, the full service airlines need greater competition from budget airlines, including on long haul flights. It’s time for the dinosaur airlines to be consigned to the history books.

Personally, I would delighted to see AirAsia flying to Europe and America!

Any thoughts?

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