Greece’s LCC Market Share Still Lagging Behind

Greece is among Europe’s nations with the lowest low-cost carrier (LCC) market penetration, currently holding a mere 28 percent of the market, according to airline network news and analysis provider anna.aero, which forecasts that the LCC market will account for 50 percent of all seats by 2027, already achieved in nine European country markets.

Currently low-cost seat capacity in Europe accounts for 36 percent of all seats with an average 1.4 percent increase in market share per year. At the same time, European LCCs account for 70 percent of all low-cost seats in 2018.

Source: OAG Schedules Analyser data/anna.aero

According to analysts, some 501.83 million low-cost seats will be flown in Europe in 2018, up by 7.4 percent against 2017 – breaking for the first time the half a billion LCC market barrier in terms of annual seating capacity.

Indicatively, the number of seats flown by LCCs in Europe has grown by 124 percent from 224.29 million seats in 2009 to over half a billion this year. Τhe number of seats flown by LCCs in 2018 has grown by some 35 million this year compared to 2017.

According to the data, Spain is the biggest market in Europe in terms of LCC seats, accounting for 82.2 million departing seats in 2018, followed by the UK with 75.21 million and Germany with 55.68 million seats.

Spain is expected to see its low-cost seat capacity grow by around 5.3 percent in 2018, with Germany expecting a 19 percent rise. With 400,000 more seats, Germany took over this year from Italy, which was the third biggest market in 2017 and expecting LCC capacity to increase rise by around 6.4 percent this year.

Overall, the European market has in the past decade grown at an average 9.4 percent rate in terms of LCC capacity. Based on this, analysts say 2019 will see over 540 million low-cost seats flown from European airports, reaching just under 600 million seats in 2020.

Meanwhile, in 2018, Wizz Air  is aiming to add six million additional seats, while Luton-based easyJet is set to grow three times quicker (13 percent) than Ryanair (4.2).

Ryanair  and easyJet continue to hold the lead in Europe, with Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines following in third and fourth place respectively.