From Bloomberg News

April 12, 2005

Low-cost airlines such as Ryanair Holdings, JetBlue Airways Corp. and AirAsia account for 1 in 8 flights worldwide, double the number from before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a British report released Monday said.

Discount airlines operate 12% of the more than 2.27 million scheduled flights worldwide, according to figures from the Bedfordshire, England-based Official Airline Guide. The growth of low-cost carriers contributed to combined losses of $9.2 billion for U.S. network carriers last year and prompted consolidation among European airlines.

``They`re transforming aviation, forcing the large network carriers to cut costs and move toward setting up operations that can compete with the newcomers,`` said Klaus Breil, a portfolio manager at Frankfurt, Germany-based Adig Investment, whose $6 billion under management includes Ryanair shares.

This month, airlines will have a potential 260 million seats for sale, the airline guide said. Low-cost airlines will account for just shy of 300,000 flights, or about 38 million seats. That`s 15% of all seats worldwide.

I wonder if ADIG would ever consider EDIG.