The stark warning of a cull of low-cost airlines came as the British budget airline's shares fell more than 4% after another spike higher in oil prices towards $120 a barrel.

"There are currently about 50 low-cost carriers on the European market — that's absurd," Francois Bacchetta, managing director of EasyJet France, told a news conference.

In a few years' time there will be no more than about three or four of us left in Europe," he said.

He was speaking at a briefing about a new EasyJet service between Toulouse and Lyon.

Traditional network carriers like Air France KLM have slapped extra fuel surcharges on ticket prices in recent months to help compensate for soaring crude oil prices.

"If we ourselves passed on these increases completely we would have to raise ticket prices by 10% in one go and our payload factor (the proportion of seats sold) would fall from 85% to 60%. Our whole low-cost business model would be thrown into question," Bacchetta said.

"The most competitive companies like Ryanair or ourselves will survive, along with one in Germany and perhaps one more in Europe. The others will die or merge as cripples. This phenomenon will even touch so-called normal carriers."

EasyJet issued a profit warning last month, citing higher fuel costs.

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