In their Economies of signs and space book, Scott Lash and John Urry state that the progressive diffusion of tourism could not be understood from a technologic determinism. The consolidation of travel in the XIX century did not start with the extension of railroads, but with the moment these began to become a part of a social organization linked to tourism. That is, without tours organizers, the train wouldn’t have caused bigger impact.

This is related to the Innovation in world class aviation and globalization note (spanish) published in Globalizacion, a blog that belongs to the Economy of Globalization course -doesn’t say which college they belong to. The bottom line is: the current succes of low cost airlines are not caused by technologic innovations, but to modifications of certain social processes, that allow low-cost airlines to create a new market. Among the changes that enabled the drop in costs and fares are the disregulation of the market -and of the working conditions of many of the companies employees-; the online ticket system, which lowers the costs of emission and eliminates most part of intermediation; the possibility to make aggresive internet offers on low occupation periods; to adjust the values according to the emission date -and sell, for instance, the first tickets at cheaper prices, to ensure a reasonable rate of flight occupation; the revision of processes linked to the food service, to lower the expense per passenger -and in case of short flights, the selling of lunches or dinners and the elimination of free service.

As you can see, in this enumeration there are no bigger technological progress, rather, there are innovations in the management of processes. This allows the airlines to satisfy a new market, linked to those travellers who want to cheaper fares and are willing to resign confort and services.

More about the topic: Creating New Travellers at Innovation and Technology Transfer.

Bibliography

Scott Lash y John Urry (1998) Economías de signos y espacios. Sobre el capitalismo de la posorganización. Buenos Aires, Amorrortu.