Peculiarities of development of the low-cost airlines in Russian and Norwegian context

Abstract

Low-cost flights per se become more and more popular in the world airline industry, while in Russia the first low-cost carrier has recently appeared. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of low-cost carriers, peculiarities of the development of the low-cost airlines in the context of Russian Federation and Norway. In order to cover the topic, deep literature review and qualitative research were carried out. In the paper, I attempted to follow history, analyze reasons for low-cost flights, advantages and disadvantages of low-cost carriers, scrutinize perspectives and peculiarities of the low-cost airline market in Russia and Norway, and analyze future opportunities. Under these circumstances, case study method and interviews as primary information sources and reports and articles written by airline experts as secondary sources were used. Two companies were under the research: Sky Express – a Russian low-cost airline company launched the market this year, and a Norwegian low-cost airline company, a member of European Low Fares Airline Association, Norwegian Air Shuttle. Deep literature review concerning low-cost airlines and empirical findings showed that the phenomenon of low fares has its peculiarities on a particular market. In order to understand the role of context regarding the research question, I tried to find similarities and to reveal differences in the activities of two companies with the help of PESTE analysis. Discussing perspectives of low-costs airlines in Russia and Norway, there are particular trends in each case. It is expected increased competition, quality and types of services on the Russian market. The research confirmed importance and relevance of this topic. It proved that there are not only economical conditions for establishing low-cost airline company but social, technical and environmental aspects which should be taken into consideration when managing low-cost operations. The analysis of data collected by in-depth interviews contributes to better understanding of peculiarities and helped to provide research with the future perspectives on Russian and Norwegian markets. Significant changes and development of the low-cost airline market present wide outlook for future researches.