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Even airlines flights aren't the cost of fuel. It's a promising technology, but it isn't that promising.
by danielweber 14y ago
Even airlines flights aren't the cost of fuel. It's a promising technology, but it isn't that promising.
- kalininalex 14y agoThey are mostly fuel and wages of (frequently unionized) employees. For example, numbers for Southwest for the last quarter, of the total $4.2 bil expense: Fuel: $1.5 bil Salaries: $1.2 bil Depreciation + Maintenance: $0.5 bil (basically all airplane related expenses) So, maintenance expenses are only 12% of the total, while fuel is 35% and salaries 28%. If the cost of fuel in orbit launches was indeed just 1% of the total cost, then compared to air travel those launches are very inefficient and there may be a huge room for improvement.