Prices will stay low in the burgeoning cheap flights market

Travellers who were stranded yesterday at Stansted – base for both Ryanair and Buzz – had plenty of time to ponder the questions the deal raises. Such as: why would KLM sell its low-cost subsidiary? In October, Floris van Pallandt, the chief executive of Buzz, said: "We have an unswerving commitment to developing the low-cost market." Yesterday the Dutch airline showed it had decided to staunch the losses caused by Buzz's brief life.

The sale marks the end of a sorry sequence of events that began when KLM bought Air UK and rebranded it as KLM UK. The timing was unfortunate, because Ryanair and Go rapidly began to encroach on its territory. The airline's traditional Anglo-Scottish routes were abandoned. Finally, on 3 January 2000, Buzz was created from the rump of Air UK. But the upstart broke crucial rules in the no-frills book: it operated two types of aircraft, and relied on the high-cost infrastructure of KLM UK rather than start with a blank sheet.

The original routes concentrated on big cities such as Vienna, Hamburg and Helsinki, then these were dropped in favour of French provincial airports. Ryanair was already established in France. With bigger planes and lower costs, the Irish airline made money. Buzz was losing a small fortune. KLM has never revealed fully the state of its offshoot's finances.

For the time being, operations will continue as normal, with bookings being taken by Buzz for all its planned services. No changes are likely before the start of the summer schedules in April.

Eight months ago, Go was swallowed by easyJet. Fears have been expressed that further consolidation will force prices to rise. But with three new UK-based no-frills airlines taking off in the next three months, and growing competition from Germany, fares will continue to fall.

Loyal Buzz customers, who have enjoyed good service when schedules go awry, will have to get used to the robust no-compensation policy practised by Ryanair.