New Europe, new low-cost air services

Only a few years ago European low-cost service was almost exclusively focused on Western Europe. However, the enlargement of the European Union to East Central Europe has brought with it an expansion of the liberalised air space, thereby offering new opportunities for service to Community airlines. Low-cost air service has since diversified in favour of new west–east air links that represent almost 60% new routes that have opened up between Western and East Central Europe. The western low-cost airlines dominate the market rather than Eastern European ones. The new west–east routes reflect new forms of mobility: post-migration flows from the east by those who have gone to work in Western Europe, new tourist practices and undoubtedly new types of business as well.