Cheap Flights from Major Hubs: Aeromobile Experiences of In-betweenness

Résumé En

While low-cost aeromobilities have mostly been associated with secondary or regional airports, they are increasingly present in main airports, where legacy carriers dominate. This chapter questions this change, by focusing on the in-betweenness experienced by passengers using these low-cost, yet main-hubbed, airlines. This in-betweenness refers to mobile situations that are not fully institutionalized, thus challenging the dominant representations of low-cost air transport. Drawing on a study carried out in the airports of Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt, Paris Charles De Gaulle and Dubai International, the chapter highlights the mobile, spatial and temporal segregations pitching legacy carriers’ passengers against charter and low-cost carriers’ passengers, as well as the complex position occupied by these main-hubbed low-cost aeromobilities. It also shows the social and operational tensions involved by low-cost passengers’ practices in these places and what they could mean for the future of aviation.