There is no doubt that prices offered for budget airline travel on websites leaves travel agent deals for dead, but are the deals as good as they look when the extras are added in? Are they so good that they justify the slight difference in service and comfort, especially on long-haul flights? Let’s do some serious comparisons between making an overseas flight from Australia with the budget airline AirAsia from a regional airport in Australia (Gold Coast) rather than taking a standard commercial flight with one of the old renamed airlines from nearby capital city, Brisbane.
AirAsia Charges Add-on Cost – Budget flights or not?
Firstly, let’s look at a one-way ticket from Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur, using a projected set mid-week date in March 14, 2012 for comparison. All prices are in Australian dollars and were accessed on 20 December 2011. Air Asia offers many routes from Gold Coast airport, usually going through the KL hub. For that date, AirAsia offers a very low $299 – airport taxes and fees included; Qantas (similar conditions) offers $884, Singapore Airways $835 and Malaysian Airlines $772. This would seem to be a huge difference between AirAsia and even the lowest at $772.
Now add on the AirAsia extras. Admittedly, passengers looking for the very cheapest transport might forego such things as extra legroom or the eye mask/blanket comfort pack, but, even budget-restricted travellers would probably opt to ensure that couples are seated together, a meal is served on the 10 hour flight (no food or drink may be carried aboard) and 10 hours is a long time without any form of entertainment. As well, few tourists will travel with only minimal carry-on luggage, so at least 20kg of luggage would be booked through. Here are the cost of extras in Australian dollars, taken from the AirAsia website.
- 1 meal - $10
- 1 comfort kit $10
- 20 kg baggage $25
- 25 kg luggage $30
- 1 inflight entertainment hand held unit $11
- Choosing own seat so that couples can sit together $15
- Choosing a Hot Seat with extra legroom $46
- Counter check-in rather than on-line $3
If we select just some essentials from here to match the facilities offered by a regular airline – basic seat choice, 25 kg luggage, meal, entertainment, etc., it amounts to an extra $76.
The total cost of this AirAsia one-way ticket to Kuala Lumpur is now $375, but that still represents an enormous saving on the next best, Malaysian Airlines at $772
.
Return Airfare Price Reductions
Nevertheless, most people who go somewhere want to come home! Regular airlines reward customers who make the round trip with them; hence, Malaysian Airlines have a return flight for $1250. Qantas will do a return flight for $1126 and Singapore Airlines for $1250. This is a valid point because budget airlines simply add up the one-way fares.
If we now cost the return trip by AirAsia at 2 x $375, we see that $750 still represents extraordinary value.
The conclusion is that regular airlines fail to come anywhere near the bare bones cost structure of this one budget airline. Service and attention on this flight are excellent (author flew AirAsia to KL in October 2011), seat comfort reasonable and the condition of that particular aircraft seemed first-rate. The meal served, chosen from an on-line menu pre-flight, was excellent. If the traveller brings DVDs on a laptop, music on an iPod, or a few books for entertainment, the minor discomforts are a small burden when you know you are travelling for almost half the cost of one of the standard lines. As well, Gold Coast airport is quite accessible from Brisbane and offers long-term parking at approximately half the cost of similar parking at Brisbane airport.
