The failing airline industry

They'll soon start weighing people and adding a surcharge for every pound over 180.

 

that's a good idea but only if the threshold was higher, say over 300 pounds.

european airlines have been charging for food and drink for years and no one complains. they come buy with a cart containing all sorts of snack items and you can buy as much or as little as you want.

trains will never make a comeback in this country because the freight lines have priority on tracks. do you know how much work and effort has to go into acquiring the land on which to construct new tracks? it would be an impossible undertaking.

 

These are the Ryanair/easyjet airlines . . . The European legacies (and even some of the newer ones, like Aegean) provide drinks and sometimes food even on ridiculously short flights.

It's not the $2 for the can of Coke that's going to save these airlines; they need to change their basic cost structure. US Airways has about the worst of the majors--their costs are about the same as AA, DL, etc., but their trip stage lengths are shorter, so they can't charge as much.

What's going to have to happen is that another airline will have to go out of business, thus making seats harder to get and allowing prices to rise. It will suck for those of us who like to go on vacation though.

 

When I was growing up my family's idea of a vacation was a 6-7 hour drive to either Georgia, Kentucky or North Carolina. My first airplane ride was on my second job interview --- at age 22.

When my fiancee goes on vacation later this month, she will be taking a 36-hour train trip.

We have an entire generation --- from practically every social class --- who believes a $99 flight to Las Vegas is an entitlement.

How did that happen?

 

My prediction is that for about 10 cities and routes (NY-LA, Chicago-Orlando, etc.) there will be 2-3 private airlines offering the usual shitty service at 3 times the current price.
Everybody else: Amtrak, er, Amair. Basically, Aeroflot USA.

 

Good news for those traveling with pets: Aeroflot treats dogs like people!

Of course, it treats people like dogs, but that's another story.

 

I was talking to a pilot the other day, and some of you have hit it dead on. Lower fares to destinations that don't cover the cost of operating that flight is the problem. End of story. We can't charge enough because people will bitch it's too much. I don't know why.

Oh well

 

That's as dumb as papers giving away all their content on the Internet and then wondering why circulation and advertising drop.

 

Deregulation hammered the industry but so did low cost carriers like Southwest and Jetblue.

The legacy carriers can match the fares that these airlines offer when oil is at 75 bucks a barrel because they can still make money as their costs are lower. When the costs go up - like the insane rise in oil prices - the yield gets squeezed.

The carriers with low costs can still eke out a profit or keep the losses low but the big legacy carriers are left grabbing their ankles.

Southwest has been profitable almost every quarter with only one exception. Jetblue had a good run but then a bit of a speedbump but seems to have recovered.

One of the reasons for the low costs is the lack of unionization (except for the Southwest pilots) and the commonality in the fleet. SWA has one type of airplane, JB has 2.

I think there will be more consolodation and probably ch 11 or ch 7 for a couple of the airlines and we will see the marginal and bad routes get discontinued.

Look for SWA to expand even more during this and no other airline be able to keep up.

 

Southwest is all unionized.

But having just one or two types of planes does make a difference.

 

Saw a pilot friend of mine today. We greeted each other with the usual -- one of us asking the other which one works in the more screwed up business. It's really a push.

My problem with the airlines isn't being nickeled and dimed. My problem is the whole treat the customer like crap thing.

I'll pay to check my bag or for a Diet Coke and to change my flight. But then when you change my flight, I want 100 bucks back like they knock you when you need to make a change. That's what irritates me the most. They offer almost no flexibility to their customers, but then want their customers to bend over backwards when it is to the airline's advantage.

 

I don't buy this figure at all, but as someone else pointed out, the way to make up the difference is NOT with a $15 fee for a checked piece of luggage. Keep doing business the same way and you'll end up in one bad destination: bankruptcy.