THE IMPACT OF LOW-COST AIRLINES ON THE INTERNATIONAL COACH MARKET BETWEEN POLAND AND THE UK

This article presents results from a research dissertation aiming to discover the extent to which low-cost airlines have had an impact on coach travel between Poland and the UK. A considerable amount of attention has been paid to the recent growth of passenger traffi c between the two countries, this in large part refl ecting the withdrawal of UK restrictions on workers from the new Member States following the 2004 EU enlargement. The EU enlargement was at the same time accompanied by liberalisation of the airline market in Poland, a process whose immediate effect was the formation of low-cost airlines making air travel more affordable and attracting many new passengers including Polish jobseekers looking for inexpensive and simple ways to travel. The growing demand for travel was also accommodated by the coach services very popular among Polish travelers even before 2004. However, while coach journeys accounted for over half of the visits to the UK made by Polish residents in 2003, the proportion in question was already lower by the following year, as a result of the rapidly intensifying competition with travel by air. Nevertheless, such is the perceived complexity and discriminatory nature of the airline booking system, and such is the extent of the coach network, that a market for the latter means of travel still exists, and indeed is seen to be popular among Polish passengers. The research presented here has nevertheless revealed how the growth of airline operations has combined with intense competition on the coach-travel market to put smaller coach operators at risk and to necessitate -as a key solution ensuring survival -an expansion of operations to and from smaller towns in Poland and the UK.