Face-to-Face: Richard Quest
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Richard Quest, the CNN anchor, recently embarked on an eight-day round-the-world journey using only low-cost carriers. Travel Daily caught up with Richard following his trip…
Q: Richard, congratulations on completing your round-the-world trip on LCCs. How are you feeling after the journey – any aches and pains?
Clearly we were all absolutely exhausted after we had flown so far in such a very short period of time. For instance, the leg from Sharjah to Colombo to Kuala Lumpur to Singapore down to Sydney was done from the Monday night to the Thursday morning, but we never actually slept in a hotel. We were just flying through the night and then filming during the day and catching sleep when we could. So from that point of view, it was rigorous, it was difficult.
So there are a few aches and pains particularly in the lower back, I think that is to be expected. What is interesting is we didn’t really suffer much jetlag, as we were going down towards Australia because obviously we were only losing time an hour or two a day. However, once we came back up crossing the dateline from Sydney to Honolulu to Los Angeles to New York, then I really did start to feel the whole jetlag had taken on a life of its own. I think we were tired, we were weary, but the exhilaration from having done it was quite amazing.
Q: Did you notice any difference in the quality of service and product between LCCs in Europe, Asia and the US?
I think all the low-cost carriers do the best they can to adhere to the original model. Now remember, low cost means the airlines’ costs, not the low fares given to the passengers. And they keep the low costs by having a single type of aircraft in the fleet, a B737 or A320. They charge for everything, bag in the hold, food, for those seats at the emergency exits. They turn the plane round in 15 minutes or 30 minutes at the destinations. They rarely overnight the crew and they are point-to-point, they don’t have any connectivity.
However, when you look at the airlines in each part of the world we were in, Europe is very faithful to the model with EasyJet and Ryanair. In the Gulf, Flydubai does mix the model, it gives free food on certain flights, it has seatback videos in certain ones. Asia, again, it depends on the flight. But I think some of them for example, Jetstar, Scoot, Norwegian, they all offer a business class product. Now this isn’t a lie-flat bed or anything like that. It’s basically a premium economy product. But their economics has told them they can operate those seats, sell them for extra money, and increase the yield management without destroying the cost basis of the airline itself.
They are all doing the best they can to adhere to the low-cost model but they are all trying to add frills or business products such as Easyjet or Ryanair with a flexibility product or bundling in a bag in the hold or meal and a snack or whatever it is. They are all trying to do something but it is all with the goal of increasing revenues.
Q: Which legs of the journey were the most and least pleasurable, and why?
I think the leg from Sharjah to Colombo to Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to Sydney, that was one of the most draining because it took from Monday night to Thursday morning without stopping in a hotel for a proper night sleep and we were filming during the day in different types of temperatures from the heat on the beaches of Colombo, Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and that was very draining. Then we had never-ending Friday. We left Sydney at 6 o’clock in the evening. We flew over the dateline landing in Honolulu at six o’clock in the morning. We filmed in Hawaii all day and then flew onto Los Angeles getting there at night. We worked out that never-ending Friday had lasted 42 hours.
The flight across the United States on JetBlue, that was delightful. They had more legroom, free snacks, and free television. I think that was one of our most pleasurable flights. The flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, that was on Allegiant, on an aircraft 24 years old. And it really was quite extraordinary – an old B757 that had clearly seen better days. Allegiant didn’t even have coffee or hot drinks, and the snacks they were serving were just biscuits and chips.
Q: What were the best in-flight products/services you experienced on the trip?
I think the best in-flight products that we experienced were things like the amenity kits which was sold on Jetstar and sold on Norwegian. These would include a comfort-kit of toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, but they also included a blanket, all for 10 dollars. So we all took the blanket off the plane with us. The other thing was of course on Jetblue was free Wi-Fi flying across the United States. Some of the other airlines like Scoot and Flydubai had Wi-Fi. Many of them were running the new Dreamliner 787, JetStar, Scoot and Norwegian, their planes felt new. Norwegian’s was only 2 weeks old, so they had seatback videos that worked, they had nice new leather seats. And I think that makes a big difference and of course the Dreamliner itself has an air quality that makes you feel a lot more refreshed during the flight.
Q: How was the experience of connecting between flights?
None of our connections were timed tightly. We were always staying several hours, so there was never a risk of missing a connecting flight. In fact, out of the 10 flights, most of them I think were delayed maybe by half an hour, none of them arrived particularly late. None of them were so badly delayed. Allegiant was the worst I think at an hour late, but none of them was so badly delayed that you were actually thinking that is a very bad flight.
Q: What do you think you’ve proved by completing the journey?
I think what we’ve proved by the flights is that not only are these airlines rapidly the backbone of the low-cost carriers, of short-haul travel in many parts of the world, but they will soon start to connect the dots with longer haul low costs. So Norwegian flying from Europe to the United States and to Bangkok, Jetstar with its longest flight from Sydney to Honolulu and AirAsia X. They are all experimenting with longer flights beyond the usual four or five hours. And once you get beyond six, seven hours, eight, nine hours, then the economics of the low cost airlines becomes very different and that’s something that was very interesting to see.
I think also we are going to be interested to see how the low costs connect with the legacies in the future. And the legacy airlines like British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, they no longer have that extensive feed network that they used to have. So they are going to be looking to the low costs to offer something in that regard and the low costs in a bid to expand their reach are also going to want to tie up with some of them. And that relationship is going to be fascinating to see how it plays out.
Q: What is your view on the future of LCCs vs. full-service airlines? Will the defining lines between the two business models become more blurred, or will airlines try to differentiate themselves even further?
The reality is when you are travelling in economy, the difference between a low-cost carrier and a full-service carrier in economy is almost indistinguishable. The staff on the low cost are to the point of being almost friendly, the food is edible, for example on Jetstar or Flydubai, it’s absolutely delicious. The only difference is that you pay for it.
You have to ask yourself since many of legacies are also now doing the dual pricing where you get the cheapest flight if you don’t put a bag in the hold, the difference is almost indistinguishable. And the reality is the low costs are going to more places short haul with multiple frequencies a day, and now starting to offer those more attractive business tickets with flexibility, bag in the hold, drink thrown in, that actually it’s pure snobbery to say you don’t like flying low-cost carriers simply because you feel you should be sitting in a full-service carrier at the front. But the reality is when flying economy, there’s almost no difference between the two.
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Richard’s round-the-world on LCCs trip will be split into two episodes of ‘Business Traveller’ on CNN. The first episode premieres this Thursday, viewing times below:
(Hong Kong/ Beijing/Taipei/Singapore/Kuala Lumpur/Manila)
Thursday April 14 at 1630
Friday April 15 at 1130
Saturday April 16 at 1230 and 2330
Saturday April 30 at 1930
Sunday May 1 at 1230
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