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Comment by zrobotics | Hacker News Reader

Wait, Berlin to Brussels for €9? Good lord, that is far too cheap. For example, the distance is roughly equivalent to Denver-Albuquerque. Kayak's cheapest quote is $119 one way, scheduled 1 month in advance. I knew flights in Europe were cheaper, but how is it possible to operate profitably at that price? Kayak shows $23 for Ryanair Berlin-Brussels.

For comparison, I had a vehicle breakdown and needed to take an (awful) bus that distance in the US, and it cost far more than $23 (IIRC, it was ~$75 and took 18 hours).

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Ryanair,which is pretty successful business, is essentially a flying kiosk. The tickets are cheap but you pay for everything else.We had a company trip from London to Ibiza. Throughout the entire flight stewardess hasn't managed to wheel out the trolley with drinks,because there was a constant queue of 10-15 people buying alcohol. An average pub on Friday night doesn't sell as many drinks as they did on that flight. They also make tons of money from car rental,hotel, insurance referrals and many other upsells. No one in his own mind would otherwise think that running a plane that costs tens of millions of dollars with tickets worth €9 can be profitable.

"How is it possible to operate profitably at that price?"

It isn't: Air Berlin, Monarch, Primera, Small Planet, Azur, Cobalt, VLM, PrivatAir, Icelandic carrier WOW.

They were run like traditional airlines, but traditional airlines can offset short haul losses with long haul profitability.

Primera and WOW were in trouble because they couldn't offset losses on their long-haul with anything.

I mean... I will not consider lower confort on transatlantic route, while sub 3 hour flights Ryanair is actually great.

That's not exactly correct. Ryanair expect to make about $50 per passenger one way.

Though even at profitability, the flights in EU are typically cheaper.

Flights in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus are very expensive... They are in Europe as well.

I pay more than 9€ to go from NJ to NY in a greyhound bus!!!

How is it so low? Even with all subsidies, kinda hard to believe

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