november-2010

TRANSFORMING CITIES | EUROPE
WHEN DR MARK
CASEY WAS
GROWING UP
in Newcastle upon Tyne, fl ying was a
once-a-year, if-you’re-lucky event. “Each
winter my parents would book the next
summer’s package holiday to the sunny
resorts of southern Spain and then spend
the rest of the year saving to pay for it,” he
recalls. “Even as a teenager I never dreamed
that travelling to other parts of Europe, let
alone regions such as North Africa, would
one day be within my reach.”
But thanks to the service that easyJet
provides, Europe’s cities are now in easy,
affordable reach of Casey and millions of
Europeans. Over the past 15 years, scores of
new routes have criss-crossed the Continent,
bringing visitors, jobs and prosperity to
cities that were previously known only to
locals and the affl uent jet set. Now dynamic,
vibrant places like Newcastle, Tallinn,
Nantes and Bilbao have become travel
destinations in their own right, sharing the
urban limelight with the likes of London,
Paris and Rome.
Casey – now a lecturer at Newcastle
University – has just submitted research
to the journal Tourist Studies, in which
he claims that easyJet and other low-cost
airlines have been responsible for an
economic and social transformation that
has remapped Europe in what amounts to
a “democratisation” of air travel.
“MY RESEARCH AMONG residents, tourists
and travel professionals in Newcastle and
Barcelona shows that the availability of
better value fares has allowed them to either
take their fi rst steps into the world of air
travel or increase how often they fl y,” he says.
“Before the arrival of easyJet, getting around
the EU often meant fl ying via a hub airport
such as London’s Heathrow, Amsterdam’s
Schiphol or Barajas Airport in Madrid. Not
only did such fl ights take much longer to
complete, but the cost was often prohibitive
for many. Now residents of cities from
Newcastle to Barcelona to Kraków are able
to pick from multiple fl ights that suit their
plans, and they can travel direct between
destinations, saving time and money.”
64 | TRAVELLER | 15 TH BIRTHDAY ISSUE
Here, the new Liverpool 1
development; previous,
market stalls in Kraków’s
Rynek Glówny main square