No-Frills Flying Emerges as Travel’s Painful, Greener Future (1)

Densely packed aircraft, little legroom and no free drinks. It’s starting to look like the uncomfortable reality of global air travel for more and more passengers as airlines race to decarbonize.

The spartan cabins and fuss-free service of low-cost carriers appeared half a century ago, a makeover that made flying affordable to the masses. Since Southwest Airlines Co. first took off from Dallas in 1971, dozens of budget peers including Ryanair Holdings Plc, AirAsia Bhd. and India’s IndiGo have emerged to take on more pricey legacy carriers.

With global air travel almost completely recovered from the pandemic, cutting emissions is ...