Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
Those $49 tickets are not everywhere. They're for very short flights on no-name airlines to places like Myrtle Beach. When I fly Southwest I pay at least 200 to go to Cali or NY from Chicago. A lot of times it's more and when I fly United, it's usually around 400 a ticket.
http://www.airlines.org/econ/d.aspx?nid=6207
Shows how many bankruptcies there have been in the industry.
Anyway here are the costs for airlines broken down:
http://www.airlines.org/econ/d.aspx?nid=1042
The largest component is labor. Fuel is 2nd largest and moves up and down as any commodity will but that labor cost isn't market priced.
Plus how can they charge more without losing passengers?
I have to think about it in terms of my own interests. I want cheap flights and I don't want an airline defaulting on its pension obligations like United did and leaving the government to take care of their mess. I'm sure the pilots all have to think about it in terms of how high a salary they can get with what benefits and the airlines in terms of how to get the most profits for themselves.
-Rudey
|
1. Do you expect labor to work for free. Since you blamed union labor for the problems then the real issue is difference in cost of union labor vs. non union labor and does that difference make up for the billions that the airlines are losing.
2. I disagree with your point that low cost tickets are not everywhere. I just checked Travelosity and there are tons of low cost tickets from NY to Orlando.
3. The airlines used to charge more. That was back in the day when they used to turn a profit.