The crashes within a week of two passenger aircraft belonging to small airlines raise concerns that economic pressures on low-cost operators force some into dangerous compromises on the maintenance of their fleets. Though bereaved relatives of the 121 dead on the Cypriot carrier, Helios Airways, and of the 160 victims on the Colombian carrier, West Caribbean Airways, have accused the airlines of poor maintenance, there is as yet no clear evidence of this. It is, however, certain that both the airplanes suffered technical failures. In the case of the Helios Boeing 737, there was apparently a sudden decompression at more than 35,000 feet. With the West Caribbean MD-82, first one and then the other engine failed.

Both carriers began services relatively recently — Helios in 1999 as Cyprus’s first independent airline and West Caribbean a year later, to serve internal Colombian routes and the islands of the Caribbean. In the cutthroat business of modern air travel, newly established carriers enjoy one significant advantage over established competition; they do not have the financial legacy of bureaucratic back offices, ticketing systems, infrastructure and even pensions that go with long-time players.

As other low-cost carriers such as Ireland’s Ryan Air and the UK’s EasyJet have proven, by cutting out free onboard meals and even formal ticketing, the price of an airline seat can be slashed. However as the most successful low-cost carriers in Europe and North America have demonstrated, cheap and cheerful does not mean underinvested and dangerous. Such airlines have already carved out for themselves a reputation by offering some short and medium-haul seats for as little as a dollar, plus airport taxes.

For the later arrivals in this tough competitive environment, the start-up costs must surely be daunting. Not only do aircraft have to be bought or leased but air and ground crews have to be provided, either directly or by contract. With landing fees and marginal profitability per seat rising, even at second- and third-level airports, it only takes a few poorly utilized flights before airline managers began to panic about their bottom line. Every hour a commercial airliner is operated produces a concomitant maintenance cost which has to be met out of revenue. Under international airline safety rules, there are no ifs and buts about meeting these standards and the bills that go with them.

These days, in every airline, aircraft dispatchers — the people on the ground who oversee every element of a flight before it takes off — are under constant pressure to ensure that costs are controlled, even by trying to minimize the time an airliner runs its engines on a runway waiting to take off. In the final analysis of course, nothing any airline does to save money can be allowed to risk the lives of passengers and crew. Tougher inspection of budget airlines seems necessary in order to ensure they do whatever is necessary — and spend whatever is necessary — to keep their planes safe. With that in mind, maybe cheap air travel needs to become a little more expensive.