Aer Lingus - Irish low-cost airline

Aer Lingus is an Irish low-cost airline. Aer Lingus is an old airline with long history and it became a low-cost carrier in 2002.

Aer Lingus is 29.4% owned by its rival, Ryanair, and 25.4% owned by the Government of Ireland.

Transavia - Dutch low-cost airline

Transavia.com (formerly Transavia Airlines CV) is a Dutch based low-cost airline operating as an independent part of the Air France-KLM group. Its main base is at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol while Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Eindhoven Airport and Copenhagen Airport are its secondary bases. Transavia.com chiefly operates scheduled and charter services to leisure destinations. It is headquartered in the TransPort Building at Schiphol Airport in Haarlemmermeer.

Jet2.com - British low cost airline

Jet2.com Limited is a British low-cost airline based on the grounds of Leeds/Bradford Airport, England. It operates services from eight UK bases to 54 destinations. The airline also offers contract charter and air cargo services. Its main base and headquarters is at Leeds Bradford Airport, with smaller bases at Manchester, Belfast International, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Newcastle, East Midlands and Glasgow. It has about 1,500 employees as of January 2011.

Wizzair - Hungarian low-cost airline

Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Kft. is a Hungarian low-cost airline with headquarters in the Airport Business Park C2 in Vecsés, close to Budapest Ferihegy International Airport, Hungary.

Wizzair was established in September 2003. The lead investor is Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm specialising in transportation investments. Wizz Air prefers to land at smaller or secondary airports to reduce costs and fees.

Air Baltic - Baltic low-cost airline

A/S Air Baltic Corporation, operating as AirBaltic, is the Latvian flag carrier airline and a low-cost carrier, with its head office on the grounds of Riga International Airport. The airline was established on 28 August 1995 with the signing of a joint venture between Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and the Latvian state.

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA - Scandinavian low-cost airline

Norwegian is a low-cost airline. The company is the second largest airline in Scandinavia, and has a route portfolio that stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East. Norwegian offers a high-frequency domestic flight schedule within Scandinavia and to typical business destinations such as London, combined with a low-frequency service to international destinations from its focus cities.

Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) was founded on 22 January 1993 to take over the regional airline services produced by Busy Bee for Braathens in Western Norway.

Germanwings - German low-cost airline

Germanwings is a German low-cost airlinen, which is fully owned by Lufthansa. Germanwings uses Airbus A319-112 and A319-132 aircrafts. Germanwings became a wholly owned Lufthansa subsidiary on 1 January 2009.

EasyJet - British low cost airline

EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. It carries more passengers than any other United Kingdom-based airline, operating domestic and international scheduled services on 500 routes between 118 European, North African, and West Asian airports. The parent company, EasyJet plc, is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Ryanair - European low-cost airline

Ryanair is an Irish low-cost airline. Ryanair head office is at Dublin Airport. Two primary airports of Ryanair are Dublin and London Stansted airports.

Ryanair operates using Boeing 737-800 aircrafts. Ryanair is the largest low-cost airline in Europe in terms of passanger numbers and second largest of all airlines in Europe.

Low-cost airline, budget airline, discount airline or no-frills carrier

A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline is an airline that generally has lower fares and less comforts. These airlines may charge for extras like food, priority boarding, seat allocating, and baggage etc.

Low-cost carrier business model usually includes:

• only one passanger class
• limited variety of aircrafts to minimize training costs
• development of one of more hubs to maximise destination coverage
• flying to cheaper secondary airports
• unreserved seating
• direct sales of tickets (usually own website)
• passengers paying charges for extras, such as hold luggage, online check in and priority boarding
• not supplying meals in a flight, but offering snacks, sandwiches and drinks instead to purchase on board

This list of budget airline business model is a summary of the characterics defined at wikipedia. Usually Southwest Airlines (1971) is considered as the first low-cost airline.