Having lived in both the U.S and EU I have seen some differences between the two:

U.S
-Customers have more loyalty to airlines
-More product differences/better Customer Service
-Higher amount of business routes
-Travel is more expensive

E.U
-Across the board price over loyalty
-No differentiation in product (barely)
-More leisure-oriented (EU traffic goes up 60% while 15-30% only in the U.S in the summer)
-Travel typically cheaper

Now airlines such as Allegiant, Spirit and Frontier are now bringing much cheaper prices to the U.S market but has or will there be the chance that new/current airlines in Europe will bring back higher classes of service (possibly even at a cheaper cost)?

(Obvisouly LCCs have impacted E.U to what is it today but the aim of my question is to see wether it could go the other extreme or if there may be a mid-point).

Cheers,
Lesfalls

Europeans tend to travel more, more often and for longer. Travel isn't necessarily cheaper, but it is more likely to involve discount package booking. Americans who DO travel tend to spend more - something the Greeks were keenly aware of when they, thankfully, forced the EU's hand on foolish, xenophobic travel bans.

Are you really trying to say service is better on US carriers than European carriers? I think the loyalty factor is a bit off as well. Many Europeans are loyal to their nation's flag carrier come what may. Sure EZY/FR have challenged the status quo, but they took their model from WN. It is natural Europeans would travel more than the US counterparts for pleasure. In Europe annual vacation is minimum 4 weeks per annum, but in most cases 5 or more, and that is before you get to Southern Europe where entire workplaces close down for a month in the Summer. A lot of people in the US barely get 2 weeks vacation per annum and can live hours away from a regional airport, so how would they be able to travel as much.

eurotrader85 wrote:

I think the loyalty factor is a bit off as well. Many Europeans are loyal to their nation's flag carrier come what may.

I have to disagree with that.

Sure many Europeans are proud of their national flag carrier airline, I can't deny that as a Dutch I'm proud of KLM. Nonetheless they're not my preferred choice, in fact I've never flown KLM mainline and only once flown KLM Cityhopper. I don't really have a favorite airline to fly, I usually let the price guide me. Therefor at most I might fly Transavia, which is the low-cost subsidiary of KLM. However mostly I end up on airlines like Ryanair or Wizzair, they offer enough service for my demands and the price is unbeatable.

I still wonder that the US American legacy carriers don't have low cost subsidiaries. They compete with the LCCs with their Eco light fares.

JetBlue and Southwest don't want to be found in certain flight search websites. That's rather untypical for European airlines. And it underpins your opinion that US customers are more loyal resp. US airlines build on loyalty.

Michael O'Leary had maybe an influence on the European market with his persuasiveness and funny remarks. Stating that he wants to introduce a fat tax, toilet tax, charge for breathing on board and so on. Everything in order to lower fares. The term "10€ fares" had its share in making Ryanair the most used European airline.

Ryanair copied Southwest in the beginning, but FR went much further. Now it's Frontier, Spirit, Akasa and others who copy Ryanair and Wizz Air.

airlinenavigato wrote:

I still wonder that the US American legacy carriers don't have low cost subsidiaries. They compete with the LCCs with their Eco light fares.

I guess that's because the American market is a domestic market with airlines having hubs all over the country. The European market on the other hand is way more diverse, legacy airlines are way more bound to their home country and have no bases outside it. Air France works in France, but it wouldn't work in Germany for example. America is way more homogeneous, no matter if you're in New York or Los Angeles it's both just as American. There are no legacy airlines in America that only have bases in part of the country like every European legacy airline only has bases in it's own country.

Air France-KLM has Transavia to fend off Ryanair and EasyJet in the Netherlands and France, which are their home markets. Transavia is a whole other product than Air France or KLM, but it's a regional brand. It might have destinations all over Europe, it only has bases in a specific area. Namely the area where Air France and KLM are based. Since American legacy airlines have bases all over the country they would also need their subsidiaries all over the country, which would basically cause them to compete against themselves.

airlinenavigato wrote:

JetBlue and Southwest don't want to be found in certain flight search websites. That's rather untypical for European airlines. And it underpins your opinion that US customers are more loyal resp. US airlines build on loyalty.

Certainly.

The argument that you can always call these airlines for the price or look it up on their website might work in America, it wouldn't work in Europe. Europeans look at a comparison website and book whichever option comes out cheapest. If an airline is not on that comparison website it's not being taken into consideration. We're not going to look up each individual airline to see what fare they offer, even if that airline might have given you good experiences in the past that's no guarantee for the future. It's not listed on the comparison website, therefor it's not an option.

airlinenavigato wrote:

Michael O'Leary had maybe an influence on the European market with his persuasiveness and funny remarks. Stating that he wants to introduce a fat tax, toilet tax, charge for breathing on board and so on. Everything in order to lower fares. The term "10€ fares" had its share in making Ryanair the most used European airline.

Ryanair copied Southwest in the beginning, but FR went much further. Now it's Frontier, Spirit, Akasa and others who copy Ryanair and Wizz Air.

True. Southwest might have started out as a low-cost airline, nowadays they can't be called that anymore. They're just another legacy airline. It wouldn't work in Europe because they're just way too expensive, the fact that it works in America proves that Americans care more about service than about price. That's different in Europe, where people care more about price than about service. By cutting service you can lower the ticket price and Europeans won't accept a reasonable fare if there is a lower fare available elsewhere.

eurotrader85 wrote:

Are you really trying to say service is better on US carriers than European carriers?

Service? Like in-flight service? No. Absolutely not. I don't think anyone is trying to argue that. But customer service (as in, airport staff, reservations staff, IROP recovery, etc.) yes absolutely. I'd rather my itinerary go to hell in a handbasket due to a mechanical delay on Southwest ANY day, over an equivalent disruption on literally any EU carrier I can think of. The US airlines emphasise operational excellence above all else, and so they are well prepared to handle irregularities. The EU carriers emphasise their service and regularity, and then completely crumble when things don't go according to plan, especially from a customer-facing point of view.

Lately Americans tend to brawl more on flights.

BTV290 wrote:

eurotrader85 wrote:

Are you really trying to say service is better on US carriers than European carriers?

Service? Like in-flight service? No. Absolutely not. I don't think anyone is trying to argue that. But customer service (as in, airport staff, reservations staff, IROP recovery, etc.) yes absolutely. I'd rather my itinerary go to hell in a handbasket due to a mechanical delay on Southwest ANY day, over an equivalent disruption on literally any EU carrier I can think of. The US airlines emphasise operational excellence above all else, and so they are well prepared to handle irregularities. The EU carriers emphasise their service and regularity, and then completely crumble when things don't go according to plan, especially from a customer-facing point of view.

I mean, I think US carriers are better than European ones with snacks in economy. AA will give you pretzels and a soda on STL-DFW, while carriers like BA will charge you for everything a la Ryanair.

Would this just maybe have anything to do with Europeans often getting many more days off work each year than Americans ?

I was reading this thread over breakfast and almost spit out my cereal when I read US airlines having better customer service than European airlines… Which parallel planet are you living on? As an American living in Europe and traveling extensively on both US and European airlines (even during Covid) European airlines (at least mainline ones) blow US carriers out of the water in customer service. If you are comparing Ryanair or Easyjet or Vueling to AA, DL or UA, you may have an argument (just may), but if you compare AA, DL or UA to KL, AF, LH, or BA then definitely not. On AF or KL you do get a snack on short flights depending on time of day and a choice of beverage (that includes wine or beer in economy!!). European airlines get penalized financially when things go wrong…. EU Passenger Rights oblige European (and even non-European carriers operating out of Europe) to indemnify passengers for long delays. No such thing exists in the US…. So EU airlines try their best to adhere to this. And try calling customer service desk at DL or UA or AA (I am top tier status in all three alliances). Good luck!!! Personally I have found AF to have the best customer service and were the best of all the airlines I flew during lockdown in refunding tickets due to cancelled flights.

Cultural Traits…?

Sceptics don’t travel well.
A yank abroad is usually a handful,
Europeans are much more travel minded, and can handle themselves much more eloquently when travelling.

Shout and scream as much as you want, but it’s true.