It’s time, yet again, for a moment of reflection on the performance of a few low-cost carriers over the preceding month. For the first time we’re including Monarch’s stats in our comparative essay. Why? Well, because Monarch sent us a nice little email a few days ago with their April stats. Low-cost carrier publicists, take note.

For the fourth straight month, SkyEurope beat Ryanair in increase of numbers of passengers flown. Against April 2006 numbers, the number of passengers carried by SkyEurope last month ballooned 44.7%, against growth of 19% for Ryanair and growth of 16.4% for Monarch.

SkyEurope also trounced Ryanair in April load factor percentage increase (that is, the average number of seats filled), with a load factor increase of 7.4%, against a 2% drop in seats filled by Ryanair (and a 4.9% drop in seats filled by Monarch.)

Despite this, Ryanair filled marginally more seats than SkyEurope did in April: 83%, against 82.1% for SkyEurope and 80.2% for Monarch.

Popularity: 2% [?]

We opened up our stuffed email inbox this morning to read emails from low-cost carriers Monarch and Volare touting cheap new fares. In Monarch’s case, the airline boasts £38.99 one-way journeys. Volare brags about its offer of 10,000 €52 fares from Milan Linate to Paris and six destinations in Italy.

We used Monarch’s “Bargain Hunter” search engine to locate the airline’s cheapest fares. The very cheapest fare we found, after tooling around with a variety of depature airports, was £43.26 once taxes had been taken into account. We should note, however, that few flights showed up at this fare.

Our price check of the fares championed by Volare turned up no evidence of €52 fares. The closest we got was a €67.87 flight from Linate to Bari. We wonder if the airline’s 10,000 seats have already sold out.

Popularity: 3% [?]

We love a good budget-friendly travel tool. While exploring UK low-fare carrier Monarch’s site recently we couldn’t help but find their “Bargain Hunter” drop-down menu extremely useful.

Monarch’s Bargain Hunter tool works like this: you enter your departure airport and your month of travel and up pop a few low fares. We selected flights from Lisbon in March and found a one-way fare to Gatwick for €43.40.

What we like about Bargain Hunter is that it clarifies the stakes. We find so often with low-fare carriers that the lowest listed fare can be difficult to find. A tool like this one cuts through the smoke and allows consumers to find the cheapest fares within a given period. Budget travelers are used to foregrounding flexibility above all else, and this tool is especially useful for the Cheapo demographic.

Popularity: 2% [?]