MADRID 2007 -- by easyjet (low-cost European airline)

This trip to Madrid was the first time I was there since 1993, when I visited there for less than one-day (en route to Lisbon from Paris, a group of travellers and I stopped in Madrid to visit the museums). Since fourteen years had passed, I clearly expected things to have changed (for the better, of course!) and I will touch more on these things in future blog entries.

But for now, I will talk about easyjet.

Since the deregulation of the airline industry in Europe, a number of low-cost carriers have sprung up with the aim of taking on the national legacy carriers (Alitalia, Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and so forth) and providing air travel far at the price of a long-distance bus ticket.

My trip from Lyon to Madrid cost me, round trip, about 75 EUR, or about $100. Round-trip. That's as much as a ticket between the islands might cost you (if I'm not mistaken). This included all airport taxes and fuel surcharges, just to give you an idea of how cheap the fare was.

But cheap doesn't have to imply low-quality. Quite the contray, I found easyjet's relatively new aircraft a refreshing alternative to some of the other carriers' older planes (one US airline I often used until recently used DC-10s on its Japan-Hawaii routes, believe it or not!). And the service was cheerful, friendly, and also safety-oriented. I found the flight attendants even more strict than the ones on the legacy carriers: they asked passengers to buckle in and to put their bags completely under the seat in front of them.

easyjet, from what I understand, is especially a stickler on maintenance and safety, because a failure to ensure either would severely reduce its share of customers.

Oddly enough, on both flights that I flew neither was full, and I imagine that the load factor for the return trip was no higher than 60%. I wonder if they can still make money on such low ridership.

One warning: they are strict also in the sense that they require you to check-in no less than 40 minutes before takeoff. In my case, my flight was 7:50 am and I arrived at the airport at 7 am. Running to the check-in desk I arrived from the metro at the counter at 7:05. That gave me enoguh time to catch my breath before checking in ... but if it were any time after that ....