Fuel represents 25-30% of most airline's OPEX, while capital (planes) is something like 15%. I would suggest this means we are actually doing pretty well. In a

Fuel represents 25-30% of most airline's OPEX, while capital (planes) is something like 15%. I would suggest this means we are actually doing pretty well. In a hypothetical ideal market, an airline would directly convert consumables to travel with zero other expenses. This is the most efficient (in the market sense) an airline could be. As for "if we mastered air travel, we could remove fuel from the equation"- I don't think that's true. Jets are already 20-40% efficient[1], so even with a perfect plane we could only quarter to halve fuel requirements. [1]: http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/aviation/index.php?idp=97 http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/aviation/index.php?idp=9...