High flying a low cost

Written by Patrick Middleton

So how's David or Pete or Angelina?

The idea that all celebs fly up front or by private jet is decreasingly true. Ryanair has recently welcomed aboard Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss and Brad Pitt - and last year the Blair family flew back from Italy with the Irish carrier. Certainly, as Michael O'Leary's PR people obviously realise, this is the kind of news that establishes confidence in the company. But, as I've warned more than once, in this column, you have to choose your "low cost" with some care. No likely problems with Ryanair or easyJet nor with carriers which have been spun off from or taken over by major airlines (Snowflake, Transavia, for example). But new kids on the block can be dodgy. Remember: in recent years one low-cost airline operating out of Nice has gone belly up every six months.

An interesting aspect of this situation is discussed in David Hampshire's Retiring in France (reviewed by Damian Elwes in our last issue). The advent of cut-price air travel has encouraged more and more Brits, Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians to settle in France. A perverse effect of this is to push up property prices. As Hampshire warns, a happy settler in the French sticks can risk the collapse of the shaky carrier that gave him the idea of coming in the first place - and then a reverse reaction can occur with a fall in property values. More likely, a company like Ryanair or easyJet may close a route as yields fall under pressure from mounting costs (those mentioned in another connection by Filip Soete: fuel, taxes, insurance). Both the aforementioned companies have recently warned - in rather low voices - that their present low fares may not be sustainable. This could imperil the advantage of (to quote Hampshire) "relative ease of travel home for family visits and of trips here by guests". Nice, obviously, will always be linked to many other parts of Europe around the year, but I wouldn't feel the same certainty about Toulon-Hy�res.