One thing to point out is that even those far off aiports have reliable and cheap public transport connecting the many airports to the city centre. Whenever I fly anywhere in Europe, I always end up going to (and from) an airport by Train, Metro or Tram, with 24 hour public transport tickets costing less than 7€.

wendover productions apparently isn't enough airplane videos, thanks youtube algorithm

I think the biggest reason for the difference in budget airline fares in the U.S. & Europe is the lack of a convenient, & reliable alternative mode of transport, like rail service, which u correctly pointed out.

Hardly anyone uses domestic flights in the Netherlands because it's a small country and there is a good train network.

I believe there is another reason as well. Air travel in the United States is way more business based, whereas air travel in Europe is way more leisure based. A small business with an office in say Chicago, IL may be considering opening up a 2nd location in say Dallas, TX. And then a third location in Atlanta, GA. These are distances that can only be done via air travel if you need to conduct business with all three offices. In Europe, a small business wanting to open up a second location will much more frequently opt for an opening of a second location within the same country, mostly because of language barriers. And while countries like France and Germany certainly are large enough to have possible business locations in rather far away distances - e.g. Hamburg and Munich, or Paris and Nice, it is less common for European businesses to do so. In the USA, people fly from Chicago, IL to Atlanta GA to do business for 2 days, then on to Phoenix AZ, and then back to Chicago, IL before the week is out. Same dollar. Same language. No passport needed. Of course this does happen in Europe as well, but it is much more localized, e.g. within France, or within the UK, not so much from Birmingham to Nice to Milan and back to Birmingham. The same is true for students. It is much more common for a student in Minneapolis, IN to go to university in say Seattle, WA, and move there. They will live there and often fly back and forth to see their parents when there is a school break. Because of the above, families are very spread out. People going to university in a certain town, a few HOURS of flying away from parents, will often stick around.... get a job there after graduating, maybe meet the love of their life, start a family, etc, etc.... And that leads me into this: The USA has a number of major travel holidays, in particular so Thanksgiving and Christmas. Millions of people go home for those holidays, ensuring pretty much guaranteed business from mid-November to early January. The following winter sports season in February flows into Spring Break in March, and then it is time for graduations again where grandma WILL fly to see her grandkids graduate from some place. It is different in Europe: In Europe there is a HUGE summer peak, where holiday goers fly from the northern side of Europe to the warmer southern side of Europe between late May and late August.... and although there are a few winter sports peaks as well, for most of the rest of the year - I would guess about 6 months of it - budget airlines in Europe rely more on business travel and family visits, and less so on leisure travel. So if you want to travel from A to B in say.... April, you can likely get an extremely low rate with carriers like RyanAir, because they are trying to fill up the planes. In the USA with much more business travel, and more spread out leisure travel In a nutshell: In the USA there is a more steady flow of passengers throughout the year, where is in Europe there is a big peak in summer, but much less throughout the rest of the year. The market demand on flights is completely different, and that is partially reflected in pricing.

The biggest factor is distance. The European continent is much smaller thus most destinations are short flight away (lower fuiel costs). The longest routes are Balkans ->Ireland , Baltics and Nordics-> Portugal/south Italy and thats about 4h. All the major flights are less then 2h (Central Europe). In America New York to LA is 6h if you are lucky to get a non stop. 8-10 with connection. Also in Europe you have a large competion between travel options- you can fly , bus travel is also easy. Trains are viable option but not much in international as the EU power standards for trains are a mess + every train has to operate a local loco because reasons....

Southwest is not a low cost carrier compared to Ryanair. Yes they offer incentives, but their prices are much similar to global carriers

Love Flixbus. Its cheap for sure but also surprisingly comfortable

It is very easy to be critical of Ryanair and Michael O'Leary,. Most younger people don't remember pre Ryanair when flying scheduled airlines was for the privileged few with huge government subsidies thrown in. Ryanair revolutionised air travel in Europe and everyone else followed the model. Cheap air access also transformed the demographics of the entire continent, with large scale migration from the old Eastern Europe to more prosperous countries. I hope someday that we finally recognise Tony Ryan and Ml O'Leary for their immense achievement. Many other sectors would benefit from similar deregulation.

being from new zealand, i had a shock while visiting portugal a few years ago. i had never heard of standby lists. had a flight from faro (south of portugal) to valencia, connecting via lisbon. got to check in, they took me off the flight. rescheduled me later in the day. ended up flying faro-frankfurt and frankfurt-valencia, it added 12 hours to my arrival time, wasted my time and i had to wait 3 months and many emails to TAP to get my refund (yes, i got a refund). seemed like such a waste of my time and airline money for my refund, just to have a full airplane.

I did a trip in Europe in 2019. It is very cheap and easy to travel across Europe. I used a combination of Ryanair, coach and train. I remember booking a one way ticket from budapest to Bordeaux for 7 euro

The seasonality of travel is also a factor in Europe, as you have noticed, Europe is quite well connected on short and medium distances, which has the effect of concentrating demand for air travel in the busiest months (typically summer) where prices become comparable to those in the US. The rest of the year, airlines have to fight to fill their planes, while in the US, demand remains fairly flat throughout the year.

fwiw: I heard somewhere that US carriers are averse to inter-connecting travel. even in the small city where I live, one can fly in, and there you are. rent a car, call a cab, do whatever you feel, and you are on your own! in contrast, when I flew into FRA, the train connexion to the city center was so easy and so affordable, that I cannot recall how much it cost!

Southwest airlines is an LCC while Ryanair and easyJet is a ULCC. The ULCCs of the United States are Frontier and Spirit and I have personally purchased 3 tickets for just $11 one-way on Frontier.

5:50 I have been to Brussels Charleroi Airport(Belgium), that was the departure airport towards Girona Costa Brava Airport(Spain). Because that was my first flight and it was with Ryanair. The fact that we travelled 150km to a outer country airport says enough about the price in comparison to driving by car

Just flew TAP from IAD to Brussels via Lisbon, thought I had a great fare, but by the time I paid for a couple of bags and extras, I could have flown direct on united on a widebody jet for the same money and better service and less time in air and at airports. Lesson learned.

I believe there are actually more airports near US cities than European cities. But US airports are almost exclusively owned by local governments, which means the local authorities have a strong incentive to prevent competition from nearby airports, and thus don't let airlines us them even when they try.

That data point of population density of 36 people per square KM in the US is very misleading, as 80 % of US citizens live in the Eastern half of the country, also including a State like Alaska which is largest by landmass but only has a population of around 700k really skews the results.

When trains and Buses are already competing for lower prices airlines really need to push their price down to stay competitive, also because ground transport is more convenient and sometimes even faster on short routes

Just to point this out, Southwest IS NOT a budget carrier. Most of their one-way tickets are $100 or more. Frontier and Spirit Airlines are the budget airlines here in the states, and I've gotten 2000 mile round trip tickets with Frontier for $30.

Southwest would probably be a "mid tier" airline. Spirit is more like the budget airlines of Europe.

I remember when air travel in North America was so much cheaper than Europe. Deregulation in the US has a lot to answer doe.

Aviation in pandemic world doesn't exist. It was so fun to watch, history channel. I remember once I had flown with wizair, and sometimes with raynair. Those were the times... I wonder now, how old I was back then....

I find Wizz Air advertising videos beautiful. They look great. 👍

Trains make sense for journeys of less than four hours. There are lots of trips which are even shorter like London-Paris, London-Brussels, Paris-Brussels all taking two hours or less. For longer journeys trains can still make sense if the airports of the two cities are more than an hour away. However trains are expensive in Europe and with the advent of low cost flights and and low cost buses, there has been a fall in demand for some long distance rail travel.

Kind of hard to compare Southwest and Ryanair. Southwest gives you two free checked bags plus a carry-on, has slightly larger seats, and I would say an overall more enjoyable customer experience. A lot of their routes start in the $49 to $69 range one way.

Trains are actually not that competitive in the EU. This is due to preferential legislation for the airlines, however there's a growing movement trying to make it so there's a healthier framework for the European Union. In most countries, currently it is usually cheaper to fly domestic than taking the train.

9:00 the Netherlands and domestic flights is rare, it can only be a couple of routes which mostly get used to transfer a aircraft towards a different airport to pick up flight towards mostly the south

And now legacy carriers are undercutting LLCs, I frequently see ‘basic economy’ fares with British Airways cheaper than Ryanair and easyJet.

6:07 I can see my Mom's house, my Dad's and my place, all in one frame. :D

Great info, you guys are doing great

Noting that all all european airlines can serve "domestic" flies is like noting that a Texas-based airline is allowed to fly routes within california. "domestic" has a different meaning in europe and in the US: An american domestic flight is just comparable to a flight within the EU

as it seems the site uses British people in speaking and voiceovers and it still uses US spelling, confusing

Europe has a competitive travel (i.e. airplanes, trains, and buses) marketplace and the US doesn't. That's all you need to know.

I don't see why someone would want their ticket to be comprehensive of everything. If the "base price" is 70$ and service A B and C are 10$ each,, I'd rather pay 70$ and add what I need than pay 100$ and possibly be paying for a service I don't need.

Have you ever flown Canadian domestics ? From toronto, Going to Vancouver is twice as much as going to London

Ayyy i fly a lot with Wizz Air haha, honestly never ever had a problem

It's almost impossible to avoid Ryanair and easyjet if you fly regularly around Europe's smaller cities and towns - some towns and cities only have air connections thanks to the low cost carriers - the likes of British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa unwilling or unable to compete it seems.

9:43 that livery is just stunning!

Plus existing old euro carriers make alternative profits from business sales that avoids economy seats and the carriers make nice profits from medium-long haul. Ultra short trips are now seeing hsr rail competition. Stricter emission regs will undercut lower fares. Euro state subsidy rules make subsidising by small airports backed by state guaranteed borrowing will be outlawed unless its to marginal regions (islands, ultra low populations, strategically important)

I booked Vancouver to Regina on Flair for $98.00 return from Aug 29-Sept 12'21

Swizerland in one of only countries that tax fuel on domestic flights... I have a question: swizerland has domestic flights?? hahahhaa

Something I was thinking of when I clicked on this video- flights in Europe aren’t as long as flights in the US so they need less fuel. This may have nothing to do with it at all but I’ll put it out there anyway 😂

Almost all flights in Europe are international. How many domestic flights are there in Germany? The train beats those cases for almost everything except island hopping stuff like Sicily to Rome, etc.

"Hire airfares"? I wonder if anyone got a scolding for this typo 🤔

Europe tourism is critical for each country, air travel will recover in 2022 and boom in 2023. I believe that we will continue to see low fares. Greetings from Mexico!

Looking at FedEx and UPS Europe even allows foreign airlines to operate within the European exclusive zone.

To me it looks like pilots and AHs are paid more in the US than in Europe. I know FR had a F/O cadet program. That means you pay for your 737 rateing, and you work for free for the next one to two yrs.

Love the image of the new ACELA train set that isn’t in service yet 🤣

I much prefer the Southwest boarding process. You can check in on-line 24 hours before the flight and receive a "boarding number". SW boarding areas have stanchions/poles set up leading to the boarding entry, with boarding numbers shown on both sides of the stanchions. Numbers 1-30 are on one side, 26 through 60 on the other side. When ready for boarding, you line up according to the number on your boarding pass. When called, the passengers proceed to board in the same numerical order. As the first set of 60 proceeds, the next group of 60 line up, etc. Although it is a process unique to SW (at least in the States), it goes more quickly and is much less stressful than "cattle-car" boarding. Once on board, seats are first come, first served. As a dual USA/EU citizen, I've had experience with the European LCC's. I have found the SW service to be at an overall higher level. Aircraft are consistently clean, crews tend to be attentive and enjoy their jobs. Operationally, SW is now flying to/from Hawaii (inter-island as well as to/from Mainland), Coast-to Coast USA, Mexico, Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Hey, flying can be a pain, but SW I seem to be swearing a LOT less after a SW flight!

One major factor often forgotten by people is salaries and if you look it up salaries of staff in the USA is higher compared to europe as whole. if you check avg salaries of pilot is legacy carrier is > 200k and if you pay less , no pilot will be willing to fly.

You should compare Canadian flight prices. I am reasonably sure we have the highest airfare costs in the G7 with government taxation and airline greed leading the way. Discount carriers? Not in this part of the planet.

As there are so many differences and Maarten is also right, at the end of this video I have two questions for whom might be able to answer them (please and thank you!): Who make more money? The american or european airlines? And how much actually costs a plane ticket if you put aside all the taxes and the money the airlines actually make in profit? (an average of course, as this depends on many things, as country, airport and how full a plane is). P.S. Last time I've flown with Wizz, if you dont pay to buy the seat aswell you will not be flying with you're loved one, sitting next to you ...

great guest

♫ Cheap flights! Cheap flights! Flights for 50p! ♫

The best channel ever

There’s things like easyJet etc but then there’s Wizz, wizz is just a different breed tbh their prices are mental

Most people don't understand this but it's pretty simple really. And...... we have also had mass migration by people from Eastern Europe to Western Europe so we often have these people travelling by air, back and forth, between their homeland and the West.

10€ fares are probably gone forever. Most fares around my area are up like 100% compared to pre covid rates.

taken flix bus and flix trains a few times in germany. cant knock it. cheap and reliable.

You cannot use Southwest's $149 average fare as the standard. Southwest isn't actually all that low cost. Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant are the true low cost carriers in the US, and their fares are comparable to European LCCs.

As Im currently contemplating saving an 8 hour drive and flying a trip in a few months, Southwest wants over $300 to fly me for an hour and 20 minutes. No wonder I stopped travelling long ago.

The airline market isn’t truly deregulated in the US. They still don’t allow foreign airlines to operate domestic routes.

A perfect example of how things used to be in the USA with regards to low cost carriers was the startup of Southwest Airlines. They wanted to fly out of Dallas Love Field airport but competitors not only used lawsuits to try and shut them down but also got federal laws passed limiting where they could fly to from Dallas (mostly because of lobbying by American Airlines and the people behind DFW airport). Things changed and the restrictions are gone and Southwest is now the largest low-cost-carrier on the planet but back then there was a lot of fight to prevent them getting off the ground.

So besides fees being a massive difference between RA and SW SW has a higher business class % of seats filled. America also doesn’t really do way out of the way airport like Southend and London. That’s why Gary Airport isn’t a Chicago destination and Manchester is declining as a Boston destination. SW also has started to operate in more main airports like Bush Miami etc. Americans just have different style and managaing structure. It’s best to contrast not compare them

There's a quite an error due to the fact that BREXIT was finalised, UK based companies don't have access to the ECAA. If an Easyjet flight from UK ( A ) go to another country ( B ), that same plane have to go back to UK, he can't be used to cover another destination ( C ).

Cebu pacific be like: talking huge Planes for long flights and sell them at 30$

Pacific Southwest Airlines pioneered low cost model before Southwest Airlines did.

I love that I can go places so cheaply. I dont care if uts slightly worse comfort its only a 2 hour flight. My dad went to norway for 10 quid.

Average passenger weight directly affects the amount of fuel used. North Americans are on average 15% heavier than Europeans, so since fuel is a major part of the ticket price,this must be a major factor too.

Odd that you say American's are not used to being charged for everything. I've flown long haul with Delta and United and they would charge for drinks and extras, while BA didn't.

There is a big item which you missed...the size of the territory flown. Compare to Europe, most points in the US are at least 1500 miles apart, with points like New York and Los Angles over 3,000 miles. Compare this to a little over 200 miles from Paris to London, or 1700 miles from Dublin to Athens. They can't land and turn as often as the Euro carriers can. Turn times mean more flights and more flights mean less cost. Also, the US has a bus system, its called Greyhound (there are also a high number of smaller long range buss companies) and those buses are usually full, especially ones on the North East corridor routes. As well, airlines in the US also used to seek out airports that were far away from city centers, the problem is, now those are the main airports, for those that haven't just been abandoned.

The premise said at 6:16, I know an airline that fits that description, ahem, JetBlue and its JFK (New York) base

Allegiant uses smaller airports. In Washington, they fly out of Bellingham but not Seattle.

I don't know for certain but I suspect that a big discrepancy in the average cost of Ryanair vs Southwest is that the average southwest flight is a much longer distance. The US is a lot more spread out than europe.

You also forget this very important factor - Most European countries have high fuel taxes on road gasoline- and diesel. The taxes have traditionally been three to four times the taxes in the United States. I am convinced that the private Americans to a much greater extent choose to travel around the United States in their own cars and SUVs, as gasoline and diesel cost approx. 50% less compared to in Europe per. km / miles. In Europe, a large proportion of cars are smaller commuter cars, which are not so suitable for long trips with a lot of luggage. Road geography in Europe is also more cumbersome due to many peninsulas and islands leading to major detours and ferry costs. And then there is also the phenomenon of MEGASTAU on the German autobahns with over 100km long traffic queues especially on summer weekends. The Interstate Highway System in the United States was expanded around 1980 across all states in the United States. A coherent motorway network across Europe has taken much longer to build due to the Iron Curtain that divided Europe until 1990 and due to national interests stood in the way. Left-wing parties and environmental fanatics have also always hated the concept of auto mobility in Europe and have obstructed many necessary motorway projects. International treaties have prevented similar air traffic obstructions.

Out of Berlin I can fly for a nice weekend to Spain, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria etc. for 20 - 50 Euro on a short notice. Others (Americans) might only have once in a life chance to visit Barcelona, I fly there for no money just for this one Restaurant and a day at the beach. Blessed to be European

cheaper than anywhere else in the world as well i think. now that i live in asia, finternational flights are not as cheap as in europe. boy do i "miss" those easyjets and ryanairs.

You totally skipped over the fact that business travel is a much larger percentage of air travel in the US than in Europe. That’s one of the biggest reasons fares are higher. Business travelers are less price sensitive. And the US market is not as seasonal as Europe so competition for leisure passengers is much lower since planes stay mostly full throughout the year. Most budget European airlines make the large majority of their profits over summer. Try watching Wendover Productions video on Why so Many Airlines Go Bankrupt

There is less competition in the US, but this is due to captured regulators approving mergers that shouldn’t have been allowed to proceed. It’s simply not accurate to put it on the open sky agreements within the EU. Southwest is a Texas airline, yet offers countless nonstop flights between the other 49 states. This is inherent in our union, and with much difficulty has been introduced in the EU. It is definitely appropriate to also point out that seats and baggage are free on southwest. If you paid for these on Ryanair, I’m sure you’d find the cost more comparable.

couple of important factors not mentioned: Americans subsidize their rural airports (but those are less profitable and traditionally more expensive due to less competition) Europeans don't tax their fuel but do have landing fees for ATC's, Americans are the opposite, no ATC fees but as mentioned they do have fuel tax

What happend to the Brit low cost after it has gone out of EU?

I love Changi Airport at Singapore😊😊😊😊😊😊😊.

why is wizz air here but it's my favorite

I reckon low cost short haul flights may suffer in the future due to a growing network of high-speed trains. Planes may become less popular as they're less environmentally friendly.

It really is all about Euro population densities and rail networks vs US air/rail infrastructure. US railroads built out by 1916 with 264,000 track miles, Passengers carried peaked mid 1920’s and downhill since except freight which exploded in growth after 1980, This lack of rail interest continues except regional intercity pairs and US high speed rail is not economically viable due past rail ROW construction practices/population densities. Deregulation Act of 1978 created cheap fares, mergers, bankruptcies, new low fare carriers and moved largely from linear route systems to hub and spoke systems to fill the newly arrived wide bodies. By the time the Euro market Deregulated their airlines 20 years later the US had already experienced much of the changes to where we are today and looking to revert to linear routes in certain areas due to aircraft advances. Tertiary airports are only now attracting consumer interest as the US airlines only serve 500 US airports despite 5,000 US general aviation airports. Nothing was said about Euro user fees as it relates to air carriers, In the US, ATC/Nav and Weather services are included as a fuel tax which is significant, Anyone know how Euro landing fees, ramp fees and misc fees are on avg in Europe? . I

Southwest is not a low cost airline. Sure there’s $2 flights from Grand Rapids to Lubbock, but try ORD to LAX or PHX

One big factor you missed is that Europe is much smaller than the US, resulting in shorter average flights. Longer average flights in the US means more fuel equals higher average flight costs.

Noone gonna mention that cone @6:42?

I've just booked a 1500 km flight for only 5 euros. Fares in Italy are ridiculous nowadays.

Ryanair is great, its rarely late, comes in 30 min before departure, people off and people in, and boom! you are off. Compared to other big companies like Lufthansa, SAS or LOT where you have delays or shifting departure times. The big ones might give me a free drink and a sandwich but Ryanair is faster and more efficient and, to be honest, I prefer the no frills model to paying 40-50% more in a ticket price. Ryanair is efficient and very convenient. Also a 10% rise in prices...so basically 55 eur to fly across the continent instead of 50? Bring it on.

Australia should be the same. Big cities, far from each other and near no similar transit times. Even hsr would be difficult there.

From a US perspective, it’s really sad how other countries are so much more technologically advanced than the US is in transportation. We still use outdated trains dating back from the 70s.

A point you missed is the low social standard of low cost airlines in Europe. Some pilots have to work in bogus self-employment allowing the airline to skip sick pay or payments for the employees pension. However I don't know if this also applies to US LCC.

EU open skies is a red-herring, because the US is approximately the size of the whole EU. A Hungarian airline moving into serving London-Barcelona is more or less exactly analogous to a midwestern US airline deciding to fly PDX-SAN.

I thing i completely missed: the deregulation in Europe completely destroyed national terms and conditions in the transport sector, a problem that was not encountered in the US. Eg: bruto Cabin crew salaries are easily a multitude higher in the US, with proper taxes paid on them. In Europe salaries are very low and barely a few euros of taxes are paid (due to differences between all the countries). No wonder tickets are cheaper here...

Why not tax aircraft fuel by the efficiency of the flight? i.e. amount of passengers. A filled cabin is moving more people per liter/gallon.

During this past winter, I travelled between Munich, Vienna, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, then back to Munich, and payed approximately 250-300 euros for all forms of transportation I took. It was 1 train journey, 3 flights, 2 long distance bus journeys, and 2 ferry trips. In the US, an itinerary identical in size would warrant me paying a couple of thousand US dollars, just for transportation. Don't believe me? I recently payed $480 round trip for a basic economy ticket on Delta between Kansas City and New York City - a 3 hour flight each way.

lol a SWA captain 5 years in will get pay in 1 year what a Ryanair Captain get paid in 3. Plus their passengers don't need chiropractic adjustment after landing. That's why.

muricas thicc, a normal domestic flight is longer than an international run in Europe. a flight cheap enough to operate to run a two digit ticket you might aswell just drive, then you dont have to deal with a rental when you arive and can come and go as you please not tied to a plane or train skedule, no security just hit the road. and well a car is cheap to run in the us the national avrige gas price about 3.20 a gallon converts to .75 euros per litre.