easyJet was founded in 1995 and became one of the major low-cost airlines in Europe. Its business model used simplified service, high aircraft utilisation, and aggressive pricing. It helped make frequent short-haul flying normal for students, workers, migrants, and weekend tourists.

Low-cost aviation changed the social texture of contemporary writing by making flight casual, cheap, and sometimes spiritually empty. Poems and essays about tourism, home, and rootlessness increasingly belong to this world of sudden departures.