It's not like the airlines are killing it on those tickets (or that they're even profitable). The "profitability" of any individual ticket is debatable. But, o

It's not like the airlines are killing it on those tickets (or that they're even profitable). The "profitability" of any individual ticket is debatable. But, overall, the US airlines are now very profitable. There was a spate of mergers over the years, and now there is an oligopoly. As Andrew Ross Sorkin recently put it: Far from “hypercompetitive,” the airline industry is increasingly looking like an uncompetitive oligopoly. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/business/dealbook/as-oil-prices-fall-air-fares-still-stay-high.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/business/dealbook/as-oil-p...