Air Transport – A Tourism Perspective

Chapter 11

The End of European Charter Airlines: Myths and Realities

David Ramos-Pérez*; Frédéric Dobruszkes^†    * University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain^† Free University of Brussels (ULB), Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

The end of European charter airlines on short- and medium-haul routes has been widely forecast since the end of the 1990s. However, surprisingly the literature lacks analyses of charter airline networks at the city-pair level. Here the gap is filled by conducting a case study of two main European charter airlines, Thomson Airways and Condor. There is an analysis of their network evolution at route level and route distance range variations, and the impact of low-cost competition. Against all claims and predictions, the results ...