By the turn of the century, though, these low-costs carriers had become profitable or at least had significantly reduced their losses due in large part to concomitant increases by major carriers that were increasing their prices in response to decreasing yields and higher energy prices (Doganis 2001).

By and large, passenger traffic across the board increased significantly prior to September 11, 2001 and all signs indicated it was continue to increase for the foreseeable future. For example, according to Janda, Flouris and Oum (2005), global air passenger traffic increased from 1.573 trillion revenue-passenger-kilometers (RPK) in 1985 to 3.394 trillion in 2000, representing a 116% increase during this decade-and-a-half period, or an average annual compounded growth of 5.26%. Furthermore, between 1985 and 2000, air freight traffic grew at even faster rate than passenger traffic (Janda et al. 2005). These authors also emphasize airlines are directly affected by the larger economy in...
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