Problems and Perspectives of LCC in Europe. Case Study: Poland and Portugal

: Travelling by air transport surpasses all other existing means of transportation. According to the UNWTO data, in 2014, more than half of all tourists travelled to their destinations by air. This success is expressed, among other things, in the rapid expansion of routes and strong growth in demand. With low-cost carriers (LCC) it has become an essential form of air transport to peripheral regions such as Portugal or “new” destinations in CEE countries, e.g. Poland. In 2016, Portuguese airports handled 40.9 million passengers on international ﬂ ights, of whom about 47% travelled using LCC ﬂ ights, whereas in Poland, in 2017, Polish airports handled nearly 5 million passengers with 57.3% share of LCC. The purpose of this article is to analyze some of the factors that in ﬂ uenced the success of LCCs in the two countries, and their strengthened role in the aviation market.


INTRODUCTION
In the context of the intensifi cation of the globalization processes, the demand for air transportation has increased rapidly due to the growing importance of commercial, industrial and tourist activities.  showed that aviation is an increasingly important method of transportation for tourism markets and its provides a vital link between the areas with touristic relevance and the destinations. Over the past century, air transportation has become one of the fastest growing sector of the economy. On the other hand, the evolution of civil air transport changed signifi cantly in the last 30 years in terms of supply and distribution, safety, performance, environment and cost effi ciency. Travelling by air transport surpasses all other existing means of transportation. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in 2014, more than half of all tourists travelled to their destination by air, while the rest used surface transport (by road -39%, rail -2%, water -5%). In the middle of the 20 th century, only the higher social class, with good fi nancial resources, could use this type of transportation, but nowadays with the advances on technology, new management models and business, comes a major international phenomenon for tourism, defi ned as low-cost airlines (LCA). This new phenomenon of reduced cost, allowed all social classes the facility of travelling to different destination around the world with different services. The price is the most important factor that motivates the consumer to use the product and to feel satisfi ed about it. With low-cost carriers (LCC), also known as "no frills", it has become an essential form of air transport.
The LCA phenomenon fi rstly started in the United States with Southwest Airlines in 1971 and it is characterized by signifi cant diversifi cation of business models. Some of the characteristics of these business models are as follows: high aircraft utilization; Internet booking; use of secondary airports; minimum cabin crew; lower wage scales; lower rates of unionization among employees; one class of seating; short ground turnaround times; no cargo carried; very simple fare structures and price strategies; adoption of strict yield management techniques; e-ticketing; often no seat allocation (for faster boarding); no frills; no connections; point-to-point services (Macário et al. 2007). Low-cost carriers have unit costs up to 60% lower than a traditional network carrier (Graham and Shaw 2008) due to some standardized operating practices. The success of LCCs started during the 1990s, and nowadays it has been an increasingly important air service surpassing year after year the traditional airline companies.
The purpose of this paper is the comparative analysis of LCCs in two European Union countries with different socio-economic situation, but peripheral location. In our paper, we have focused on the analysis of LCC market in centraleastern (Poland) and southern (Portugal) countries. The both destinations were rather new for the LCC market, as low-cost airlines started operation in 1995 (Portugal) and 2004 1 -Poland (Carballo-Cruz and Costa 2014; Mills 2016).

LCC IN EUROPE: AN OUTLINE OF HISTORY AND CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
Low-cost companies have an incredible infl uence on how people travel, the geography of air services and competition between airlines and between cities and regions (Dobruszkes 2013). Moreover, as Casey suggested: "the current revolution that the advent of LCAT has ushered in (…) is one of the biggest revolutions in tourism and travel since the package holiday's arrival half a century earlier" (2010, p. 176).
In the early 1990s, it was spread to Europe and subsequently to the rest of the world. In Europe, the trend started in 1991, when an Irish company Ryanair transformed into the LCC. Its fi rst fl ights were based in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but then they were opened to all western Europe. According to the CAPA (Europe's Top 20 airline… 2018), in 2016, Ryanair carried more passengers than any other airline group in Europe with 117 million passengers.
In Europe, the development of LCC companies contributed to unexpected benefi ts (e.g. a signifi cant increase in traffi c; improvement of local and regional economies concerning airports infrastructure) (Rosa et al. 2017). In particular, the number of regular air links between European countries increased by around 75%, fl ights increased by around 88% and the number of seats offered almost doubled (Richman and Lyle 2005). Research of Dunn and Clark (2016) shows that almost 139,000 fl ights on the fi ve main LCCs in Europe (such as EasyJet, Norwegian, Ryanair, Vueling and Wizz Air) scheduled to operate nowadays in Europe. Around 21% of them were in competition with each other. Nevertheless, if we look at the two biggest LLCs in Europe -Ryanair and EasyJet -the overlap routes between these airlines are only 49, representing 2.7% of all routes operated by both companies (Rosa et al. 2017).
Among the reasons for increasing popularity of LCC in Europe one should admit economic and demographic ones. At the very beginning of LCC in Europe, they were focused only on more economically developed western part of Europe. In autumn 2008, Ryanair inaugurated a new base at Birmingham airport and launched several fl ights to Eastern European countries (Katowice and Kraków in Poland and Kaunas in Lithuania). Between 2006 and 2008, EasyJet opened up 8 routes between Kraków and Western Europe, mainly to Great Britain. These events proved geographical diversifi cation in favour of west-east links between Western and Central-Eastern Europe. Enlargement of the European Union has meant an expansion of the single market as well as the liberalised European space. In a demographic perspective, massive migratory outfl ow from Eastern to the Western and Northern part of Europe also contributed to the increasing role of LCC in the aviation market in that part of the world. The introduction of LCC in Europe also represented a stimulus to an independent travel without using a travel agency, and it has considerably changed the mentality and the way that Europeans travel. During this period, the LCC had a signifi cant impact on tourism and economy sectors. It means several new trends, such as opening up new west-east routes, the penetration of the western aviation market by eastern LCCs, and conversely, the penetration of the eastern market by western LCCs (Dobruszkes 2013).
As can be seen from Fig. 1, in 2017, LCCs account for six of Europe's top 11 airline groups, while leisure groups account for a further two of the top 14. Of LCCs, the biggest players are Ryanair and EasyJet, with over 120 and around 80 million of passengers, respectively. Ryanair remained the biggest individual airline brand by passenger numbers in 2017. In 2017, Ryanair carried 47.2 million more passengers than second-ranked EasyJet (more than the total number of passengers carried by sixth-ranked British Airways). Of LCCs, Norwegian ranked third (35 million passengers), and Vueling is fourth (31 million passengers) (Fig. 1).
EasyJet, a British company, which is the second largest group of low-cost carriers in Europe, has expanded its network to east in recent years, mostly to eastern part of central Europe, and as opposed to Ryanair, is one of the companies that is known for operating from its country of origin. The main strategy of this company is to connect networks between British cities with the cities from Eastern Europe. Thus, the other LCC companies such as Eurowings, Vueling, Wizz Air, Jet2.com, Transavia, etc. had later contributed increasingly to the diversifi cation of many cities from east to west, and conversely, from west to east of Europe.
LCC will continue to grow and it will continue to have the powerful infl uence not only on the aviation market, but also on other sectors of the economy. There are also clearly positive effects of European LCC on tourism and regional development. According to Macário et al. (2007), lower travel cost contributes to the development of the weekend rental market (e.g. houses) in a country different from the country of residence of the traveller. Moreover, LCCs play an important role in stimulating technological and operational improvements of air transport business.

THE CASE OF PORTUGAL
Portugal, similar to Poland, has a peripheral geographical position in Europe. The Portuguese airport system consists of 5 main airports, located in Lisbon, Oporto, Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada, with a total volume of traffi c of more than 31 million passengers (Costa and Almeida 2015). Lisbon Airport is located in Lisbon, and in 2013 represented about 50% of the total air traffi c in Portugal with over 16 million passengers, Oporto Airport, in the north of the country, received about 20% (almost 6 million passengers), and Faro Airport -about 20% (6 million passengers). The role of Funchal and Ponta Delgada airports is smaller, they represented together almost 11% of the national traffi c. In Portugal, air transport generates a number of economic benefi ts, representing 1.4% of the Portuguese GDP. In addition, an effect of EUR 3.3. billion is estimated in the tourism sector and the air transport sector employs about 59,000 workers in Portugal (Costa and Almeida 2015). Despite the economic crisis experienced in recent years, the Portuguese air traffi c market has shown a strong capacity for recovery. From 2005 to 2012, the number of passengers carried grew by about 50%. In 2012, Portuguese airports received almost 13 million passengers on international fl ights, mainly from the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Brazil (64% being international passengers), of whom about 37% travelled using LCC fl ights.
LCC began operating in Portugal in 1995 with non-regular business operators Air Berlin and Ryanair from Algarve Airport, then Lisbon Airport, most recently Oporto, and, fi nally, Funchal. From 2003 to 2012, these airlines included about 25% of the regular market and about 33% of the non-regular segment. Portugal has traditionally been served by the national airline, named "TAP Portugal" (Fig. 2).
According to Campilho (2014, p. 31), "the two largest European LCC airlines operating in Portugal are Ryanair and EasyJet, that occupy the second and third position representing 13 percent in the Portuguese air market". These Stansted-Funchal. The low-cost carriers have become important participants in Portuguese air transport. According to De Neufville (2008, p. 60), EasyJet "is competing vigorously with TAP at its hub in Lisbon and Ryanair is undermining the position of TAP at Porto. Both airlines provide frequent direct service to the popular Portuguese tourist destination of Faro in the Algarve -which TAP mostly serves with indirect fl ights via Lisbon. The outcome of this competitive struggle is not clear. From experience elsewhere, it is possible that the low-cost carriers may come to dominate intra-European air traffi c for Portugal". In these cases, the competition between the main LCC operating to Lisbon and Oporto are below 2%, confi rming "that it seems to exist a non-aggression pact between these airlines, avoiding to compete directly one against the other" (Abrantes 2017, p. 25). But while analysing some fi nancial indicators for TAP Portugal and main LCC for Portugal, one can assume that low-cost airlines continue to pursue competitive pressure on a weaker traditional TAP Portugal airline (Tab. 1). The competition is likely to continue in the future both with EasyJet and Ryanair 2 . The national airline TAP is now in a diffi cult fi nancial situation, and may not be able to afford expensive new facilities. Therefore, it seems that LCCs are going to increase their presence in the main Portuguese airports. According to De Neufville (2008), they might also be responsible for bankruptcy of TAP and become the dominant European carriers for the country. To sum up, LCCs in Portugal play a key role in regional economic development and tourism.

THE CASE OF POLAND
The Polish air transport market has been changing since 1990, but most signifi cant changes began with the EU accession on 1 May 2004 and earlier as the EU legislation had come into force. However, the market was assessed as a market with high growth potential, resulting from the increase in the affl uence of Poles and economic growth in Poland and Europe (Kubicka 2009).
The dynamic growth of air traffi c in Poland was infl uenced not only by relatively low fares and growth in the number of routes, but primarily by the increased transport needs of Poles in connection with the opening up of labor markets in the UK, Ireland and later in Scandinavian countries. Half of the passengers departing Poland on regular traffi c go to the UK (27%), Germany (16%) and Norway (7%) (Tłoczyński 2014). Great Britain and Norway attract migrant workers primarily, while the German airports in Frankfurt and Munich are gaining in importance as transfer hubs for Poles in the context of the declining number of fl ights provided by LOT Polish Airlines from Warsaw. Thus, the low-cost network is dominated by routes to the United Kingdom and Ireland and to Scandinavian countries.
According to the Eastern Europe -low cost and loving it report, growth in Eastern European LCCs is continuing to surge, with Poland's LCCs generating a third of all seats in the region. Poland is said to be the largest of the Eastern European air transport markets with the main LCCs players.
With the emergence of LCCs in the aviation market in Poland, air traffi c began to grow rapidly, with an average annual growth rate in the period 2004-2008 of 24% (Huderek-Glapska and Nowak 2016), whereas in the years 2009-2017 -of 33%. According to the Polish Civil Aviation Authority data, the air traffi c in Poland measured by total passenger number (regular and non-regular) was 39.2 million in 2017.
In the year 2009, LCCs' share of air traffi c in Poland represented between 47 and 60%. In 2009, low-cost airlines accounted for 14% of the total number of Oporto (Birmingham, Edinburg, Kraków and Nuremberg). According to the data of Abrantes (2017), in Lisbon, three of the routes will be in direct competition with TAP Portugal. passengers using scheduled connections, in 2005-31.37%, in 2006-46.20%, and in 2007their share exceeded 50% (Pijet-Migoń 2012. In the years 2009-2017, the number fl uctuated around 50% with the highest share in 2015 -60% (Tab. 2). Over the analyzed years, Ryanair has become the leader among the LCCs, which, in 2017, transported over 2,659,033 passengers from Polish airports, becoming the fi rst line for the fi fth time in the Polish market after LOT Polish Airlines and Wizz Air in terms of the number of passengers handled (Tab. 2). In 2013, the low-cost airline Ryanair for the fi rst time dethroned the national carrier LOT Polish Airlines, becoming the market leader in terms of passengers carried. In the same year, all regular airlines in Poland sold tickets to nearly 22 million passengers. Of this, 54% were low-cost customers. In 2016, Ryanair's share was the largest in history and amounted to almost 32% (Tab. 2). At the same time, Ryanair, being fi rst and foremost an international carrier, also began offering domestic connections between regional airports in Poland.
The position of Wizz Air strengthened quickly in the analyzed years on the Polish market too. In 2005, the fi rst year of operation in Poland, 261,000 passengers used their services, and in the next year -1 million 545 thousand (Pijet-Migoń 2012). In the subsequent analyzed years (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017), this airline took the third position (after Ryanair and LOT Polish Airlines) with the exception of 2015, when Wizz Air ranked second (5,821,836 passengers) in the country in terms of the number of passengers served (Tab. 2).
Currently, the leading representatives of this group include: Wizz Air, Ryanair, EasyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle, currently gathering around 96% of the low-cost transport market (www.ulc.gov.pl). A part of this group of carriers adjusted transport to the tourist traffi c in particular areas of the European continent to a large extent. This is evidenced by the size of the services offered on the routes characterized by the highest number of connections from Polish airports in the summer season, in a large part carried out for tourism purposes. According to Hawlena (2012), in 2011, in connections with Dublin, LCC fl ights accounted for 100%. Regarding the LCC market in Poland, the most signifi cant changes were noticed at regional airports, which experienced a very high dynamics of passenger number increase. This, in turn, translated into a drop in the participation of Chopin Airport in Warsaw -from 67.9% in 2004 to 36.8% in 2015. According to Olipra (2011), the Warsaw Airport had the smallest (23.81% in 2009) share of the LCCs in the total number of passengers. In most of regional airports in 2009, this share was more than 60% of passengers, and in the case of Katowice, Łódź and Bydgoszcz, even more than 90%. From the more detailed analysis conducted by Olipra (2011) there can be drawn a conclusion that LCCs are the main "engine" of the regional airports development. The development of regional airports is closely related to the presence of LCCs. Among all Polish regional airports, only in Kraków the other carriers have a relatively large share of the total destinations. In other cases, Ryanair and Wizz Air operated the vast majority of fl ights (www.ulc.gov.pl).

CONCLUSIONS
The emergence of LCC is one of the events that has revolutionized the aviation industry. Firstly, LCCs operated in the USA, then they were adopted in Europe in the late 1990s and contributed to the development of new routes within a more dynamic network spread all over the continent, including peripheral regions and "new" destination like Central and Eastern Europe.
In both analyzed countries, the top players are Ryanair, Wizz Air and Easy-Jet airlines, sharing majority of aviation market. It was observed that in the case of Portugal, the development of LCCs' operation was associated with leisure and cultural travels (leisure and sightseeing), whereas in Poland, their dynamic development was caused by the foreign labor market open after 2004 (Western Europe) and work travels.
Regarding Portugal, the two largest LCCs are Ryanair and EasyJet that occupy the second and third positions representing 13% in the air market. These LCC airlines operate in Portugal in all fi ve city airports but the Faro and Porto airports are the only ones that are dominated by LCC airlines with a presence exceeding 50%. Furthermore, the LCCs are going to increase their presence in the main Portuguese airports.
The network of connections from Poland after accession to the EU has undergone tremendous changes. The network of connections from regional airports has been expanded, mainly due to LCCs. Low-cost airlines, among which the largest players are Ryanair, Wizz Air and EasyJet, serve thirteen out of all fi fteen Polish airports, from which regular international passenger connections take place. Without the LCCs, regional airports in both countries may become unprofi table and lose their importance. Therefore, this phenomenon needs further studies.