In March I first wrote about the very cool project which CNN’s Richard Quest was taking on, where he was flying around the world in economy on low cost carriers.
He did this 10 segment trip in just eight days. His routing was from London to Brussels on Easyjet, Brussels to Prague on Ryanair, Prague to Dubai on FlyDubai, Sharjah to Colombo on Air Arabia, Colombo to Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on AirAsia, Singapore to Sydney on Scoot, Sydney to Honolulu on Jetstar, Honolulu to Los Angeles on Allegiant, Los Angeles to New York on JetBlue, and New York to London on Norwegian.
That’s a hell of a routing, especially since he never selected premium seating, even though some of those airlines have premium cabins.
While he was Tweeting live during the trip, the actual recap of the trip was saved for the April and May episodes of CNN Business Traveller.
The April episode of CNN Business Traveller is now airing (and also available on CNN’s website), so I’d highly recommend giving it a watch. In the first episode, Richard covers the first half of the journey, including flights from London to Brussels, Brussels to Prague, Prague to Dubai, Sharjah to Colombo, Colombo to Kuala Lumpur, and Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
Obviously this isn’t a thorough review of each product, given the production crew involved, and also the fact that they’re filming for international television, so there are all kinds of restrictions on what they can and can’t film. This isn’t as easy as me showing up on a flight with my point-and-shoot camera. But instead this experience presents a pretty cool perspective on the evolutionary business models of low cost carriers across the globe. Even just looking at FlyDubai vs. Air Arabia shows a pretty huge contrast.
In each instance Richard also meets with executives from each airline while on the ground, and also visits local landmarks everywhere they have an overnight.
If you have the time, I’d highly recommend giving this episode a watch.
Any idea what happened to the second half of this (i.e. from Singapore eastbound)? It appears that CNN Business Traveller never aired the latter episodes.
@Zed
The second ep was indeed broadcast on CNNi...
It was on the following month, but uncertain how many times it aired as the show might have been over-run with International Breaking Rolling News... be from France or the USA. Always good to select your recorder to record the program on many of the repeats. At least three a week on the first airing and then a few more times in the month of original airing.
Hope this helps...
@MattJ
Thanks for the info. Very odd that CNN published the first four mini-episodes on their YouTube channel but not the rest -- at least that I can find. Hopefully, they'll repeat at some point and I'll snag on the DVR.
Spirit/Allegiant/RyanAir/EasyJet are conspicuously absent... I'd assume the entire piece is a paid shill for the airlines he flew on.... BOO!!!!!
First comment, a new reader for a few months now! Hello!
RQ is a good aviation guy, as is the show CNN Business Traveller. Recently he did a whole show on Airport Lounges. A great ep too! Turkish Airlines' lounge.. oh my! Have been watching the show for a while now.. might I add '24 Hours in...' on CNN too with a new, younger CNN host, who I believe will take of RQ in a few years!
Its a good little show to watch and I'm glad he did it.
Low cost carriers really have changed the market in Europe & Asia.
I think there is still a lot of development for them in the states. I mean fares in Europe are still much cheaper compared to the states on low cost carriers.
Completely unrelated but Saudia just launched a new LCC.
http://m.gulfnews.com/business/aviation/saudia-launches-low-cost-flyadeal-airline-1.1715397
Jet Blue?! That doesn't seem like a low cost carrier to me. Frontier or Spirit fit the identity of a low cost carrier better.
I noticed he has an empty seat next to him on every flight. But the cost of a second seat doesn't seem to be shown on the screen. Gee.
@ Not Impressed -- If you watched the episode, he was traveling with a crew of four. Presumably the person filming wasn't actually in the seat.
@dmodemd that's what the internet is for! For the purposes of his exercise simply quoting the bottom line is appropriate.
Richard Quest is quite the personality. Him and Anderson Cooper are the redeeming graces of the pigsty known as CNN. He also hosts conferences for CAPA, my favorite: http://www.centreforaviation.tv/airlines-in-transition-10-11-apr-2013/regulators-out-of-control-the-obsessive-urge-to-control-everything-from-denied-boarding-to-charging-for-seat-allocation-whats-the-point-do-consumers-really-benefit/
Definitely doesn't hold back!
@dmodemd that's what the internet is for! For the purposes of his exercise simply quoting the bottom line is appropriate.
Richard Quest is quite the personality. Him and Anderson Cooper are the redeeming graces of the pigsty known as CNN. He also hosts conferences for CAPA, my favorite: http://www.centreforaviation.tv/airlines-in-transition-10-11-apr-2013/regulators-out-of-control-the-obsessive-urge-to-control-everything-from-denied-boarding-to-charging-for-seat-allocation-whats-the-point-do-consumers-really-benefit/
Definitely doesn't hold back!
Interestingly enough, Saudia has just announced a low cost subsidiary called "fly a deal". They say that it will primarily for domestic travel, most probably to relieve the burden on Saudia and help them focus more on the international market. I'm not sure though if they plan to expand it in the futurre into an international low cost carrier like Flydubai or Air Arabia.
The new airline will use the new Jeddah airport as...
Interestingly enough, Saudia has just announced a low cost subsidiary called "fly a deal". They say that it will primarily for domestic travel, most probably to relieve the burden on Saudia and help them focus more on the international market. I'm not sure though if they plan to expand it in the futurre into an international low cost carrier like Flydubai or Air Arabia.
The new airline will use the new Jeddah airport as it primary hub and should be operational by mid-2017.
Love if someone like Lucky reviews economy products also, like Quest.
Richard Quest - Round The World In 8 Days.
Suggestion for Lucky - Round The World In 380s!
I enjoyed the videos but I thought he was actually going to review and compare the flights?!
FlyDubai looks great - I'd actually quite like to fly them now.
@Glen N +1
Amazing. Now I understand why you enjoy Richard Quest's programme! Currently enjoying the first episode now, thanks for keeping us in the loop Lucky!
Rather than Jet Blue, which is barely a LCC, he could have flown Spirit to FLL and then picked up Norwegian to LGW.
Quest considers jetBlue a LCC? Meh.
I'm sure each airline is paying CNN for a good rap.
Anyway, if I was doing this, I would have routed through India to show the growing Indian LCC market including SpiceJet, IndiGo, Go Air, Vistara, etc. I would also have included bouncing around SE Asia more, because TigerAir, Cebu Pacific, and the other Indonesian LCCs were not at all shown.
People always forget that the Long Haul LCC market is centralized in SE Asia.
I was disappointed it didn't go into the pricing models of each trip and what the extras would cost. Note he was hauling around quite a bit of luggage he had to check and no mention of what that cost him. He just quoted base fares.