Can Low Cost Carriers survive the turmoil?

According to Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and Chief Executive Office Of IATA, premium airlines, where airlines make their money has come down 16.7% for January 2009. With premium traffic down and business class disappearing, it will be a problem for Asia's carriers to be profitable. Somehow, the case might be slightly different with Low Cost Carriers, where it might boom while legacy carriers suffer.
However, as Low Cost Carriers strive to improve their business models and differentiates their services, the rapid growth might affect their margin and not necessarily in a good way. As they move up market to fill the void left by legacy carriers, they must address growing complexities and difficulties that may come along with opportunities. In order to sustain growth, they have to broaden their business infrastructure to allow for international routes. The risk is that Low Cost Carriers could start to feel the same high-costs pressures that made their competitors so vulnerable.
Asia Business Forum's 2-day LOW COST CARRIERS conference is dedicated to provide new directions and best practices to aviation professionals on how to overcome challenges, increase profitability and to gain competitive advantage. This conference will discuss on some highlighted issues and updates facing the airline industry during the economic downturn.
This conference is a must attend event as it brings together key figures from the several airlines and a panel of distinguished speakers of several organisations in the aviation industry, namely Jetstar Airways, Air Asia X, Malaysia Airports, Airports Authority of India, Aerobrand, Munich Airport, Manila International Airport and many others.

Source: Transportweekly