Budget airlines hurting environment

Up until a few years ago, it was normal to pay more $1,000 or more for roundtrip airfare between North America and Europe. But with the entry of Norwegian, WOW Air, and a host of other low-cost airlines, the no-frills services which dominate the European and Asian flight markets have found their way to transatlantic routes. This disruption is making international flights cheaper and causing legacy airlines to panic, but it also forces us to think about the larger environmental impacts of air travel.

Flying internationally is getting really cheap really fast

It’s now possible to fly one-way to Ireland or the United Kingdom from Boston or New York for $99 or from Los Angeles or Oakland for about double that price — far less than what legacy airlines once charged on those routes. Norwegian currently serves 15 airports in the United States with direct connections throughout Europe and the Caribbean with an expansion to Canada planned for July; WOW has flights from 13 US airports, as well as from Montreal and Toronto, to Reykjavik, where travelers can continue on to destinations across Europe. LEVEL, which currently serves three US airports, is planning to start service to Montreal and Newark in 2018; they also run a route between Barcelona and Buenos Aires. Primera Air is also poised to enter the transatlantic market in mid-2018 with flights from Toronto, New York, Boston, and Washington, DC to London, Paris, and Birmingham.

However, it’s not just North Americans who benefit from the low-cost carriers that have entered the transatlantic market. Europeans also get cheaper flights across the pond and, as LEVEL demonstrates, they’re also beginning to get budget routes to South America. Joon will be launching a flight from Paris to Fortaleza, Brazil in May, and Condor has affordable routes between Germany and Brazil, but they pale in comparison to Norwegian’s plans for Argentina.

The company launched its London to Buenos Aires route in February — its first to South America — and it plans to rapidly scale up operations in the middle of 2018 with approximately sixty planes designated for Argentina. The government has granted Norwegian permission to a margin closer to 2 or 3 percent on long-haul routes, allowing them to offer significantly lower prices and forcing legacy players to do the same. Between 2016 and 2017, data from Kayak showed median airfares between the United States and 20 major European airports down Norwegian flight attendants in the United States unionized last year, and European budget giant Ryanair agreed to fall below 90 percent by mid-2018 and data from air travel analyst OAG indicated that Norwegian was the adding seats to the premium cabin of its transatlantic flights to serve growing interest from business travelers — the real profit center for airlines because they pay much higher prices for a bit more space and a few more amenities.

But what’s the bigger picture of this disruption? Travelers have little reason to worry about legacy carriers; complaints about service quality on many of those airlines have been growing for years and they could use the wake-up call provided by low-cost competition. There are also potential social benefits of allowing more people to visit other cultures and meet people in different countries, which could help increase support for international cooperation and empathy for foreigners.

However, as more people opt to take transatlantic flights as a result of lower prices, or at least take them more often, it would be irresponsible to ignore the environmental impact of increased air travel. Air travel currently accounts for 2.5 percent of global carbon emissions, but it investment in green technologies and pushing for