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Low-cost airlines
廉价航空
Long-haul sally
长途旅行
More carriers try to go the distance with no frills
越来越多的航空公司致力于使旅途没有多余服务
Perhaps JetBlue believes that the sky is darkest before dawn. On August 11th America’s sixth-biggest airline, known for its no-frills domestic services, launched its first transatlantic flights, between New York and London. The timing seems plucky. America has yet to follow European countries in lifting tough pandemic-era cross-border travel restrictions. Industry insiders think that long-haul travel will be the last sort to rebound. And low-cost intercontinental travel has historically been a tough business. Can JetBlue crack it?
或许捷蓝航空认为黎明前的天空是最黑暗的。8月11日，这家以提供廉价国内航空服务而闻名的美国第六大航空公司，首次开通了往返于纽约和伦敦之间的跨大西洋航班。选择这个时机似乎很大胆。美国还没有像欧洲国家一样取消疫情时期严格的跨境旅行限制。业内人士认为，长途旅行将是最后一种回升方式。从历史上看，廉价洲际旅行一直是一项艰难的业务。捷蓝航空能破解这个难题吗?
The flight path of failure can be tracked from Freddie Laker’s Skytrain in the 1970s, via People Express, Tower Air and Air Berlin, to the more recent hard landings for Denmark’s Primera Air in 2018 and Iceland’s WOW in 2019. Norwegian Air Shuttle, which had captured a third of the worldwide low-cost-long-haul market, gave up on it in January, a victim of reckless expansion as much as of covid-19. Even survivors have little to shout about. Malaysia’s AirAsia X has made an annual pre-tax profit only twice since it went public in 2013.
航空业的失败路线可以追溯到20世纪70年代弗雷迪·莱克的“轻轨”，中间历经美国人民捷运、宝塔航空和柏林航空，到更近期的2018年破产的丹麦派美拉航空，和2019年破产的冰岛沃奥航空。曾占据世界廉价长途航空市场三分之一的挪威穿梭航空公司在今年1月放弃了这一市场，成为新冠疫情和盲目扩张的牺牲品。即便幸存下来也没什么可高兴的。马来西亚的亚航X自2013年上市以来，只有两次实现了年度税前利润。
Budget airlines have transformed short-haul flying by running simple point-to-point operations that eschew the hassle of connecting passengers across a complex network. They keep aeroplanes in the air for longer each day than full-service rivals do, fly from less popular airports at ungodly hours when charges are lower, cram punters into minimal legroom, charge extra for every tiny comfort and keep labour costs down by employing fewer and cheaper staff.
廉价航空公司通过运行简单的点对点操作，避免了通过复杂网络连接乘客的麻烦，从而改变了短途飞行。与提供全方位服务的竞争对手相比，他们每天让飞机在空中飞行的时间更长，于凌晨从不太繁忙的机场出发（因为这种时候收费较低），把顾客塞进腿都伸不开的狭小空间里，每一个小小的让顾客感到舒适的服务都要收取额外费用，并通过雇佣更少和更便宜的员工来压低劳动力成本。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
