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In this series of posts we’re looking at the all the different types of passenger airlines that operate in the world, and narrowing that list down to the most basic types. After doing some research and analysis, we have determined that there are six fundamental airline types. In this post we look at the definition of the Legacy Carrier.
Introduction: Defining the Six Fundamental Types of Airlines
Type 1. The Legacy Carrier
Type 2. The Regional Carrier
Type 3. The Low Cost Carrier (LLC)
Type 4. The New Era Carrier (NEC)
Type 5. The World Carrier
Type 6. The All Business Class Airline (ABC)
Additional Notes on the six fundamental airline types.
JAL is one of Japan’s older legacy airlines
Most of us have taken a flight on a legacy carrier. These are the biggest and oldest airlines that exist today. They’ve have evolved over time in order to adapt the changing regulatory, economic and technological forces that have shaped our world today. Every region of the world has a legacy carrier(s), and they are the original airlines that were established in this industry. Today the total number of legacy airlines are on the decline as more and more of them consolidate, but they carry and every increasing number and percentage of passenger traffic.
British Airways at LHR
The Legacy Carrier
The traditional definition of a legacy carrier is one that had established interstate routes by the time airline deregulation took place (Airline Deregulation Act of 1978). It’s a bit more complicated than that, but let’s define the different attributes of a legacy carrier:
- A legacy carrier is an airline that has a long history that usually originates at some point in the first half of the 20th century.
- Legacy carriers operates over an extensive domestic AND transoceanic international route structure.
- By definition legacy carriers are very large airlines, and they are usually most of the largest.
- Legacy carriers offers multiple classes of service including coach, business, and first class.
- Legacy carriers are members of one of the 3 established airline alliances that include the Star, Oneworld or SkyTeam alliances.
- Legacy carriers offer a multitude of higher end travel services and which also includes their own airport lounge product(s).
- Legacy carriers predominantly use a hub and spoke route network.
- Legacy carriers offer short, medium, long and sometime ultra-long haul flights.
- Legacy carriers frequently outsource short and some medium haul traffic to specialized regional airline(s).
- Legacy carriers have a large, established, and sophisticated frequent flyer program.
- Legacy carriers typically have a broad and varied fleet with many different types of aircraft.
By this definition there are just three U.S. based legacy carriers: American, Delta and United. In greater North America you also have Air Canada and Aeromexio. British Airways, Lufthansa and Qantas would be examples of Legacies in other areas of the world.
In the US the big three legacy carriers
In the past there was a greater number of legacy carriers, and legacies in general were smaller airlines. Even today smaller sized Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are considered “regional legacies”. For our definition and our model, we are talking about the modern legacy carrier. The modern legacy carrier (or simply legacy carrier) isn’t a regional airline any longer. They have merged and grown to service a national and international network.
Lufthansa at FRA
Legacy carriers are the historical and present backbone of the passenger aviation industry. It was legacy carriers that offered the first transcontinental and transoceanic flight services. They created the first frequent flyer programs. They were the first airlines to computerize their operations and legacy carriers created and innovated many of the creature comforts we enjoy while traveling today. Even with this rich history, legacy carriers have had to consolidate and grow in order to compete and sometimes just survive in an ever competitive airline industry. The legacy carrier of today is a very different animal than the one of the past.
In our next post we’ll look at the modern regional carrier.
Sabre was the first computerized reservation system by legacy carrier American Airlines
