Everything from flying schedules to the amount of passengers each national airline could carry was negotiated between governments. This has now changed, and today any airline holding a valid Air Operators Certificate in the EU cannot be prevented from operating on any route within the EU. This development of ‘open skies’ in Europe led to the development of budget airlines. Before this liberalization of civil aviation, it was extremely difficult to travel from London to Nice for less than £200, whereas now you can get to Nice for no more than £20 with Easy jet, one of the leading budget airlines that are around. Easy jet is named the ‘webs favourite airline’ and Ryanair, another leading budget airline, is the only European carrier to make profits in each of the last 13 years. So, how do they keep their fares so low and still do better than the traditional charter airlines like British Airways? They all follow the Southwest philosophy.