For the second year, Flight-Report.com publishes its ranking of European Low-cost carriers. Discount carriers have become major players in Europe as they’ve continued to grow over the years to become a permanent fixture in the European skies. LCCs have reshaped the European aviation landscape and many traditional carriers have adapted their products and strategies to compete with the Low-cost airlines. This new ranking of European LCCs is based on grades from hundreds of airline reviews posted by the flying public on Flight-Report.com for flights within Europe.

For the second consecutive year, Transavia takes the top spot as the most highly rated European LCC. The Air France – KLM subsidiary scores highly in all four categories: cabin comfort, cabin crew, buy-on-board menu, and in-flight entertainment.

Flybe has moved up two spots from last year’s ranking to the number two position, while airBerlin, with its hybrid LCC model on European flights, takes third place.

European LCC Ranking, continued

In 4th place is Norwegian, which remains popular with its ever expanding network (Note – ranking excludes long-haul). Spanish LCC Volotea maintains its 5th place position compared to last year, while airBaltic has fallen out of the top 3 to 6th place. Europe’s second largest Low-cost, easyJet, drops one spot to 7th place in the overall ranking. The Lufthansa Group’s Eurowings (including Germanwings) makes its appearance in the LCC ranking this year along with Icelandic Low-cost WOW air at 8th and 9th place respectively. Spanish carrier Vueling, part of IAG, loses one position to round out the top 10. Irish LCC giant Ryanair falls 3 positions out of the top 10 to 11th place with an 8% drop in overall grade compared to the previous year.

Ranking by Category

Flyers posting reviews on Flight-Report.com grade airlines in four categories to rate the overall passenger experience (#PaxEx). Airlines are graded on cabin comfort, cabin crew, catering (buy-on-board menu for LCCs), and in-flight entertainment (IFE). The grades are meant to reflect the onboard passenger experience and do not take pricing into account. Transavia, winning the top spot for two consecutive years, consistently received high marks in each category. Norwegian was rated highest for IFE, thanks in large part to free WiFi.

Methodology

Airline Rankings reflect the average of grades given by flyers who have posted flight reviews on Flight-Report.com over a period of one year from January 2016 to December 2016. Only reviews on short/medium-haul routes within Europe were taken into consideration. Only airlines meeting a minimum number of reviews posted in 2016 were considered for this ranking. Any European LCC not mentioned in this infographic either lacked the minimum number of reviews or did not rank in the top 11.