Homepage » Beauty in Prague in press » A Closer Continent

A Closer Continent

Business Week

Business Week - 08 May 2006

How the explosion in bargain Euro-fares is breaking down borders and creating a new class of commuters

Ryanair, EasyJet, and nearly 40 other low-cost airlines across Europe are accomplishing what the politicians in the expanding European Union couldn't. Not until the discount airlines came on strong did millions of Europeans start to cross borders en masse for business and pleasure. Airlines last year logged more than 420 million passengers on intra-European flights, an increase of some 40% from five years ago. In the process, they've played a major role breaking down cultural barriers, revitalizing local economies, and opening up new business opportunities. „Bureaucrats in Brussels have been blathering on about European unity for ages,“ says Michael O'Leary, CEO of Dublin-based Ryanair. „But low-cost airlines are at the forefront of delivering it.“

British consumers aren't just stopping in Hungary for their teeth – they're also headed to the Czech Republic for the rest of their bodies. Tamara Zdinakova, 28, runs Beauty in Prague, a Web site that refers English-speaking patients to plastic surgeons in the Czech Republic, where prices are a fraction of those in the West. British builder Tony Barham and his wife, Maureen, both 55, flew easyJet to Prague for a 17-day holiday – and Maureen's face-lift. „It should be called Plastic Surgery Airline,“ Tony says. At $3,700, they'll pay one-quarter what they would for the same procedure back in Britain. Zdinakova says the business wouldn't exist without discount airlines. „It just wipes out the barriers,“ she says of the cheap airlines. „Prague has not been this close ever before.“

Other press releases