Low-Cost, Lower-Cost, Lowest-Cost

Posted by Tihomir Rangelov - 01/02/10 at 01:02:36 pm

The end of the 20th century saw the boom of low-cost airlines, especially in Europe and the USA. These airlines changed the industry forever. Flying is no longer a luxury, which a few people can afford. Today many Europeans fly to London, Berlin or Prague just for a Saturday night out. Besides, these airlines triggered a general reduction of prices, better competition between carriers and increasing passenger numbers. This revolution has however mostly been restricted to flying within the same continent and long-haul flights are still somewhat taken only when one has a good reason and they generally cost a fortune.

Low-cost carriers usually base their business on providing fewer “luxuries” than traditional airlines. You could expect not to get free meals and entertainment systems and to book your tickets by yourself on the Internet. Departure and arrival times might sometimes be at weird hours of the night, but that makes it possible to keep airplanes in the skies, where they generate income for the airline, rather than on the ground. This model works well for short flights, but some of its advantages (such as the maximum usage of aircraft and landing at smaller and cheaper airports) are hard to make use of for long-haul flights. Yet, a lot og people are prepared to sacrifice a few conveniences in order to get a cheaper ticket to visit a place faraway.

The idea of low-cost long-haul flights is in fact nothing new. A groundbreaking airline, Laker Airways, offered no-frill service between New York and London between 1977 and 1982, when it went bankrupt. Since then many airlines have exploited the idea and many have failed. The past couple of years though see a boom in new and old low-cost carriers plying long-haul routes and planning new ones. The boom was also boosted by the financial crisis, which saw a sharp decline in business class travel and other luxurious travel services. Besides, new aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing Dreamliner offer lower operational costs for long-haul flights.Most such airlines currently link mostly big cities such as London and New York. Flights between the US west coast and some big cities in Asia are also popular routes for low cost carriers.

Some European no-frill airlines such as Condor, Air Berlin, Eurofly, Air Comet and Arkefly mostly operate routes from their bases in Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands to popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean, Africa, South America and even Nepal. Densely populated countries in Asia, such as India and Malaysia, have also seen the introduction of low-cost flights to Europe and North America, operated by Jet Airways and Air Asia X. From Australia you can find cheap flights mostly to Asia but also some to the USA and new destinations are constantly added. Some carriers make use of a convenient short stopover (only carrying the fuel for a long flight makes the flight itself more expensive). Iceland Express, for example, has announced flights to New York and Winnipeg starting in the summer. Passengers will be able to easily connect in Iceland to a variety of European destinations.

Some of the airlines that advertise themselves as low-cost, especially ones flying on long-distance routes, do not always sacrifice all of the services described above. Some even have a business class and thus resemble traditional airlines. At the same time the latter are pressed by the competition and often offer good deals as well. This way the fine line between low-cost and traditional carriers is more often than not hard to see these days. In order to get the best deal, passengers need to compare prices. And there is no better way to do that than to use dohop.com.

The Dreamliner

Posted by Tihomir Rangelov - 21/12/09 at 11:12:51 am

The aviation industry is definitely undergoing rapid changes these days. Now that Airbus is producing more and more of its giant A380 Boeing successfully carried out the maiden flight of its newest aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner, near its base in Seattle. The 787 has been the fastest selling wide-body airliner in history and that is obviously for a reason.

Boeing is aiming to set new standards in air travel with the Dreamliner. The plane will offer more comfort to passengers with a brand new interior design, larger windows, cleaner and better air, more storage space and internet connection.
Some of these conveniences are possible because of the new materials, which Boeing is using to build the aircraft. Instead of aluminium, Boeing uses composite materials for constructing the fuselage, which allows for higher internal pressure during flight (that means less dizziness for you) and higher air humidity, as the composite materials are not subject to corrosion as aluminium. Besides, with the 787 Boeing is introducing new systems to improve passenger experience during turbulence and heavily reduce noise from the engines. The new materials also make the aircraft lighter than comparable planes and Boeing promises that the 787 will use 20% less fuel than its current rivals.

The Dreamliner will be able to seat less than 300 passengers, which makes it tiny compared to Airbus’ A380 but the idea behind both planes is totally different. The A380 was designed with the belief that in the future people will prefer to fly long distances between hubs and then take smaller planes to their final destination. This is the so-called hub-and-spoke model, which is in active use at the moment. Boeing, on the other hand belives in the point-to-point model, that is that people will want to fly directly to their final destination rather than change planes at big airports. The Dreamliner is capable of doing that as it has a range of more than 8,000 miles (enough to fly from New York to Asia or between Dubai and Los Angeles).
The 787 starts regular service at the end of 2010 with All Nippon Airlines. Although only the future will show which industry model is more successful, the most important thing is that air carriers get a better selection of aircraft and passengers will get better service at competitive prices.

The giant of the skies

Posted by Tihomir Rangelov - 11/11/09 at 09:11:32 am

Just over two years ago, at the end of October 2007 the brand new Airbus A380 made its maiden commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney. The flight was operated by one of the biggest airlines in the world, Singapore Airlines, and the aircraft was produced by the biggest airplane maker in the world, Airbus. That flight was a cornerstone in aviation history.

A380 is by far the largest passenger airliner that the world has ever seen. It is a wide body aircraft and has two decks, the total take-off weight being 560 tonnes and its wingspan – 80 metres. If you have seen it up close and personal, you will know what that means. It is so gigantic that you cannot stop wondering how on earth it can get in the air. But it does and it has been doing it very well in the past two years with an excellent safety record.
One of the best things about the A380 is that it is extremely fuel efficient and the fuel consumption per seat is by up to 20% lower than that of its main “rival”, the former record holder Boeing 747. This has been achieved by the use of the latest technologies and lightweight materials for building the aircraft. Besides, it has a capacity of carrying 853 passengers, which is 50% more than the capacity of a Boeing 747.

Because of its size, the A380 is also able to introduce the earth´s greatest luxuries to the skies. First class passengers on Emirate´s A380 aircraft already enjoy private suites, bars and lounges as well as “shower spas”. Virgin Atlantic plans to have casinos, double beds and gyms on its A380s. These might come in useful during the long hours on the plane. The A380 is namely capable of flying 15,200 km or directly between Hong Kong and New York.
So far only 20 of these aircraft have been delivered to Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates and Air France. Lufthansa and Korean Air expect their first A380s in 2010. So if you are an airliner freak (like me) or just curious and want to experience the giant in the skies, you should look for a flight on those airlines on your favourite search engine, www.dohop.com.

New hotel search engine finds best offers

Posted by Frosti Sigurjonsson, CEO - 20/01/09 at 06:01:40 pm

The Dohop team has just released its latest product: A hotel meta search engine.

The new hotel search engine is easy to use and searches multiple hotel reservation sites for hotels and best offers.  Prices are shown with taxes and fees included and links are provided to the booking sites where a traveler can book his choice directly.

 

Hotel search results can be sorted by price, star rating or distance from centre or conveniently plotted on a citymap. 

Results can also be refined by price range, amenities offered, stars, or text in name or street address.

To try it now, follow this link.

Flight search in Viét: Tìm kiém chuyén bay

Posted by Frosti Sigurjonsson, CEO - 19/09/08 at 08:09:23 pm

The Dohop flight search engine has added a Vietnamese version. As far as we know, Dohop is the first flight search engine to offer service in Vietnam.

According to the Dohop Travel Guides more than 44 airlines operate flights to Vietnam in addition to the three airlines based in the country and there are plenty of flights to be searched and found.

Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam and there is a good choice of flights there from most major cities. Check out this list of cheap flights to Hanoi recently found by Dohop users.

Dohop’s new flight search engine finds more cheap flights

Posted by Frosti Sigurjonsson, CEO - 11/07/08 at 10:07:14 pm

As skyrocketing fuel prices drive airlines to raise prices, travelers need a powerful flight search engine to help them find as cheap flights as possible.

Packed with new features and more data on cheap flights than ever the latest release of Dohop.com makes it possible to search hundreds of airlines and travel sites for the best deals.

Every single page on Dohop.com has been redesigned to provide better readability and ease of use.

New! Airport selection map. Pick any airport on the planet in just two clicks: Click 1: Zooms in on any part of the world. Click 2: Selects the airport. The map also shows the location of airports selected by typing or from a dropdown list.

New! Self-connect and save. On some routes self-connecting can mean great savings, sometimes up to hundreds of EUR and this is what most people use Dohop for. The new Dohop shows self-connecting options as separate tickets and provides advice on where and how to book them cheaply.

New! Avoid the hassle of self connecting. Booking a connected flight as a package with a single vendor is convenient and can in some cases be cheaper than if the same flights are booked separately. The new Dohop compares and displays both options clearly so travelers can compare.

New! Even more price information. Dohop’s new and powerful fare engine helps travelers to compare offers from more airlines and travel agents than any other flight search engine.

New! Cleaner look and clearer details. Clean and simple page layouts help users focus on the content and quickly find what they are looking for. Details are now displayed within search results rather than the user having to open a separate detail page to view details on offers and flight details.

New! Countless other improvements. Just to mention a couple of them; Filters can now be viewed in a single view, giving better overview of settings and better access to adjusting each filter. Sharing what you find on Dohop is also just one click away using the e-mail icon included in each result.

We hope you will go ahead and explore the new dohop.com and let us know what you think of it. Is there perhaps something you miss from the old version? Any particular feature you would like to see in upcoming releases?

Really Tiny Flight Search Engine

Posted by Frosti Sigurjonsson, CEO - 15/02/08 at 04:02:13 pm

Just out and totally FREE! A really small flight search engine that’s easily fitted on any website.

The search form (see it here to the left) takes up just 150 pixels by 150 pixels but packs all the power of the award winning www.dohop.com flight planner.

To see how to implement it on your site click here.

New Dohop.com Feature: Fare Calendar

Posted by Gudrun Helga Hamar - 12/02/08 at 03:02:02 pm

The new Fare Calendar can be found at the bottom of flight search results. It shows best prices found by other users, based on different travel dates.

 

Clicking on any price will run a full dohop.com flight search using the related travel dates.

The Fare Calendar can also display the number of flights needed to complete the trip. To show flights check the box as shown below.

To try the Fare Calendar visit www.dohop.com, do a search and page to the bottom of the results to find the Fare Calendar.

New features on Dohop.com

Posted by Gudrun Helga Hamar - 08/02/08 at 02:02:48 pm

Cheapest flights found by other users
If you’re flexible about your travel dates and destination this new feature can help you discover cheap getaways. On the Dohop front page you can now see a lists of destinations with dates and prices titled “Cheap flights to”. This list shows you the cheapest flights found by other Dohop users. You can see lists for different departure cities, by typing into the “From” field. To see more details about each item, just click on it.

Greatest value found
Also showing on the front page is the list titled “Great value flights from”. Instead of showing the cheapest flights, it shows the best value flights in terms of most miles for the money. This list is meant to help those people that want to get as far away as possible but don’t want to spend too much on it.

Travel guide pages now showing lists of cheapest flights
Similar tickers can also be found on our travel guide pages. If you are reading up on a specific city – say Athens – in our travel guides, you’ll see the cheapest flights to and from Athens, found by other Dohop users.

Dohop Connection Platform for Airlines Unveiled

Posted by Kristinn Thorleifsson - 26/09/07 at 02:09:20 pm

Last week, at the Low Cost Airlines Congress in London, Dohop unveiled the Dohop Connection Platform for airlines. This is a new technology platform that allows any group of airlines to cross-sell flights with other carriers without the cost and complexities of legacy interline and code share, and passengers to book connected flights with two or more carriers in a seamless process.The Dohop Connection Platform meets the needs of airlines that want to benefit from being able to connect to other airlines, and retain customers that are traveling outside of the airline’s network, without the having to deal with the complexities that traditional flight connections present.Dohop’s technology provides airlines with a powerful connection search engine that calculates the best flight connections that connect with the airline’s route network, and facilitates the booking of two or more tickets in a process that is seamless to the passenger. Providing the information, and then facilitating the booking of tickets through the Dohop Connection Platform doesn’t cost the airline much, but is highly valued by travelers.See the Dohop Press Release here.

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