A $13.00US fare to Europe

Ryanair the big Irish-based low-fare line has recently created quite a stir among airline industry executives with an announcement that it plans to fly from Ireland and other big European cities to Boston, Florida (probably Orlando), Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco for rates starting at €10 or about $13.00 US. Nope this is not a misprint it is really €10.

But don't pack your bags quite yet as service is not scheduled to until late 2009 or early 2010. Only a few seats will sell for as little as €10.00 as nobody could make money doing that. Expectations are that the average economy fare will have to be at least €100 to €150 (US130.00-US195.00) each way to break even.

Economy seating will be really, really cramped, and you'll pay extra for virtually everything beyond just the seat. But hey even the mega legacy air carriers are charging for just about everything too so what’s the difference. As far as leg room the seating is already cramped on the big boys too!

At the very least this new competition will force the other players to match Ryanair’s fares so the traveler wins in this case.

NOTE: € is the currency code for the European Union’s EURO. Go to XE.com for currency conversion rates.