I think air travel is destined to be a commodity for most people. Typically when we are flying we are trying to get to another place, where we will be away from

I think air travel is destined to be a commodity for most people. Typically when we are flying we are trying to get to another place, where we will be away from work and spending a lot of money. Think the trip to Disney World. Or your European vacation. By saving money on the flight we will have more money to spend at our destination. I remember looking between Jet Blue and Continental for a flight to NYC recently. I had a great time with Jet Blue because they had TVs on board and I enjoyed the free wifi in their terminal when returning. But, price-wise Jet Blue would be $20 more than Continental. For me, the extra $20 I save could be used to eat out a couple more times in NYC so it was easy to forgo the in flight convenience for what I weighed as the greater use of my money. I think that also, the capital intensive nature of the business which yields low returns on investment, in the context of being in a highly regulated industry with unionized employees makes risk taking pretty limited. So, most of the players just copy each other which also helps re-enforce the commoditized product that they produce.