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No, the real failure (and the source of this and many other issues in the airline industry) is the lack of competition in the US domestic market. Pure and sim
by jazzyk 10y ago
No, the real failure (and the source of this and many other issues in the airline industry) is the lack of competition in the US domestic market.
Pure and simple.
The huge, 350-million US domestic market is served by 4-5 major airlines, while the EU with 500 million people is served by tens of airlines. I recently flew from Barcelona to Nice for 30 euros, round-trip (with seat assignment).
Where are the (potentially Mexican or Canadian-based) low cost airlines?
That's right, none to be seen.
Let's hope this bust-up brings some legislative measures to introduce more competitive practices in the airline industry.
Otherwise we will soon be paying for the right to pee in-flight really soon.
- yladiz 10y agoWhy would what happened to United being more competitive practices? I don't see the connection.
- jazzyk 10y agoThe airlines can set up any rules they wish (with the FAA being complicit), because they know consumers (passengers) don't have much choice - they need to fly, driving is usually not an option in the US.
- yladiz 10y ago> driving is usually not an option in the US If you mean by distance, sure, but you can drive anywhere in the US, and there are a lot of people that do choose to drive semi-long distances (10-12 hours) over flying when fuel is cheap because they enjoy driving. It's less of an option when the distance is something like 30-40 hours, i.e. from LA to NYC.
- slantedview 10y agoWho are you saying no to? From the article: > the lousy economics of airlines combined with their oligopoly status in the US says they will be extremely reluctant to make anything beyond bare minimum changes It sounds like you agree with the author.
- jazzyk 10y agoI was really commenting on the part of the title "...a reporting and management problem", and on the comments in this thread splitting hairs over whether it was overbooking or over-selling - and completely missing the bigger point. Which is understanding the cause, not looking at the symptoms.
- strictnein 10y ago> "Where are the (potentially Mexican or Canadian-based) low cost airlines? That's right, none to be seen." I'm in the upper midwest and we have two or three low cost airlines. Sun Country is the biggest (and based in MN). Spirit Airlines also has a decent presence. Sun Country flies to lots of places. First class ticket to Anchorage cost me ~$700 last time I flew with them, less than an economy seat on Delta.
- mark-r 10y agoI'm taking a flight this weekend with Sun Country, MN to DC round trip for $180. Booked two weeks ago.
- martinald 10y agoI don't know if it's just airlines that have competition problems in the US. I actually think it's the airports that the problem. In the EU, many (most?) airports are privately owned. In the US, they're almost always state owned. Furthermore, the Port Authority generally owns all the airports in the area. In many EU areas, that's not the case. There's 6 airports in the London area and they all compete to offer the lowest landing fees to win airlines. Ryanair capitalised on this and really injected all the competition in the market by only flying from 'secondary' airports. I'm not sure the same thing could happen in the US. There isn't the same level of competition for airports, and without that I think it's hard for any airline to really make any difference.
- rconti 10y agoForeign carriers are not allowed to operate domestic flights within the US.