Low-cost airlines in Europe: Reconciling liberalization and sustainability

Abstract

This paper addresses the contradictions inherent in the interconnections between air transport liberalization and the economic and environmental dimensions to sustainability from the particular perspective of the dynamic expansion of European low-cost carriers and their networks. The argument considers the incompatibility of environmental sustainability with a business model that promotes rapid growth in air travel without meeting its external costs, but, simultaneously, claims to be socially and geographically inclusive. Moreover, that growth is perceived to be advantageous to strategies promoting national and regional economic growth and, consequently, the provision of low-cost airline services is being promoted by an array of national and local government agencies throughout the European Union. The paper concludes that the low-cost model does not account for its externalities despite air transport being the most environmentally damaging form of transport per passenger-kilometer but is clearly important to economic development at a variety of scales.