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Simply because flying passengers is a losing business. The ones that make money operate as financial services from selling points to their partners via their f

by dwd 5mo ago

Simply because flying passengers is a losing business. The ones that make money operate as financial services from selling points to their partners via their frequent flyer programs.

BobbyTables2 5mo ago
United’s pre-flight safety notices make it appear as if they spared no expense…
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
DangitBobby 5mo ago
But _why_ is it a losing business? The article also mentions frequent flier programs.
- Schiendelman 5mo ago
  All commodities are losing businesses, because the margins become low through competition. This is great for us fliers.
- jfengel 5mo ago
  It's a losing business for exactly the reason they sold us on deregulation in the first place: "Competition drives down prices". It's hard to understand why they fought so hard for it, because they got exactly what they said we'd get. Consumers compare prices and will always take the cheapest one, even if it's only by a few dollars. They don't think about which airline would be more comfortable, so they make comfort worse and worse. There's very little room in the market for a less-uncomfortable plane. They can auction off exit row seats, but for the most part it's "cattle car" and "first class" at ten times the price (for the people who don't care about price at all). Frequent flier programs try to stem the flow of people to the cheapest airline, but it doesn't help all that much. They get to charge slightly more than they would otherwise, especially since everybody has a frequent flier program (so everybody gets to raise prices and nobody gives you the even-cheaper alternative). But the various benefits that they use to entice you eat up most of the profits. Basically they're hoist by their own petard. They promised lower prices but didn't think they'd have to deliver. Instead consumers took them up on it, in droves.
- andyst 5mo ago
  nation state owned airlines dumping prices into unprotected domestic markets rising cost bases in legacy fleet costs, engineering costs. a lot of airlines fail near their capital renewal programs as fleet age > 25yrs pure domestic competition beomes a race to the bottom between full service and low cost carriers removing any premium

by dwd 5mo ago

Simply because flying passengers is a losing business. The ones that make money operate as financial services from selling points to their partners via their frequent flyer programs.

BobbyTables2 5mo ago

United’s pre-flight safety notices make it appear as if they spared no expense…

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

DangitBobby 5mo ago

But _why_ is it a losing business? The article also mentions frequent flier programs.

Schiendelman 5mo ago
All commodities are losing businesses, because the margins become low through competition. This is great for us fliers.
jfengel 5mo ago
It's a losing business for exactly the reason they sold us on deregulation in the first place: "Competition drives down prices". It's hard to understand why they fought so hard for it, because they got exactly what they said we'd get. Consumers compare prices and will always take the cheapest one, even if it's only by a few dollars. They don't think about which airline would be more comfortable, so they make comfort worse and worse. There's very little room in the market for a less-uncomfortable plane. They can auction off exit row seats, but for the most part it's "cattle car" and "first class" at ten times the price (for the people who don't care about price at all). Frequent flier programs try to stem the flow of people to the cheapest airline, but it doesn't help all that much. They get to charge slightly more than they would otherwise, especially since everybody has a frequent flier program (so everybody gets to raise prices and nobody gives you the even-cheaper alternative). But the various benefits that they use to entice you eat up most of the profits. Basically they're hoist by their own petard. They promised lower prices but didn't think they'd have to deliver. Instead consumers took them up on it, in droves.
andyst 5mo ago
nation state owned airlines dumping prices into unprotected domestic markets rising cost bases in legacy fleet costs, engineering costs. a lot of airlines fail near their capital renewal programs as fleet age > 25yrs pure domestic competition beomes a race to the bottom between full service and low cost carriers removing any premium