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Originally posted by madmax
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.
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I do not expect labor to work for free. I expect them to work for market-value wages - not above-market wages. Do you expect airlines to accept being held hostage to union demands, even when not viable financially?
Quote:
Originally posted by madmax
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. http://www.priceline.com/travel/airl...=pcln&path=bak
3. The airlines used to charge more. That was back in the day when they used to turn a profit.
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These points are related. The reality is that airline pricing is the ultimate supply/demand price point experiment - you cannot blame the airlines for lowering prices AND for flying half-full flights. One is a direct result of an attempt to alleviate the other.
Other than business customers (who already get dicked with "no Saturday stay-over" restrictions and the like, and thus pay a premium) very few consumers are required to fly, and thus the airlines have to hustle for every dime. They cannot arbitrarily raise prices without a corresponding backlash in the supply/demand architecture.
ETA: With all that said, I think the true downfall for most modern airlines simply comes from bad business models and being spread too thin. Southwest has shown a productive, viable model, and other companies are emulating only superficial parts of it (a la 'no in-flight snack') and not the larger, important pieces (smaller number of flights, utilizing the internet to lower business costs, maximizing ad dollars, keeping costs low overall).
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