Can low fares airlines compete in long distance flights?

Can low fares airlines compete in long distance flights? In the history low fares airlines have been succesful in short and medium term flights. If you take a look at routes from/to popular european tourist cities you can find many low fares airlines competing and many of them are still making profit but there is very limited supply of low fares long distance flights. The main reason is that long distance airlines get most cost savings in fast and efficient use of airplanes and personnel. In short and medium term flights it really makes difference wheather the plane and crew are at the airport 30 or 50 minutes between two 1 hour flights. When we are talking about flights over 8 hours this difference becomes less important and cost advantage is less important.

Norwegian low fares airline Norwegian Air Shuttle AS believes that they can get cost advantage using new Boeing 787 Dreamliners that need less fuel than older planes. Unfortunately the story of Boeing 787 Dreamliner is full of technical challenges and it's not yet certain that Norwegians can start their long distance cheap flights in May 2013 as they have planned. Norwegians seem to believe that Boeing can solve battery problems of Dreamliner and they are selling their Stockholm-New York, Oslo-New York, Stockholm-Bangkok and Oslo-Bangkok flights at norwegian.com. It's interesting to see if also long distance flights become playground of carries like Ryanair and EasyJet. When can we see first London Stansted-US flights with GBP 99/one way.

Ryanair discussing about minority equity stake in Stansted Airport

According to the Wall Street Journal Irish airliner Ryanair (Ryanair Holdings PLC) has held discussions with a number of parties interested in bidding for Stansted Airport, and added that the parties have asked the company to consider acquiring a minority stake of less than 25% in Stansted Airport. It's very obvious that Ryanair's commitment to the Stansted Airport is very important for other owners of Stansted Airport. Ryanair plays major role if Stansted is seeking traffic growth.

EasyJet cheap flights to London Stansted

London Stansted Airport is located 48 km (30 mi) northeast of Central London. There are many bus connections to the London Stansted Airport and Stansted Express Train that connects London City (Liverpool Station) and London Stansted Airport. London Stansted Airport is clearly Ryanair's home airport in London but also EasyJet flies to London Stansted. Currently EasyJet fliest to London Stansted Airport from Alicante, Amsterdam, Asturias, Barcelona, Belfast, Bilbao, Bodrum, Cagliari, Copenhagen, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Faro, Fuerteventura, Geneva, Glasgow, Grenoble, Ibiza, Ljubljana, Lyon, Majorca, Malaga, Munich, Naples, Nice, Prague, Split and Tallinn.