re: Sorry AIRLINES NEED TO COLLAPSE- NO Bailout

Before deregulation in 1978, your average ticket was about 25% of a family’s monthly income. That kept load factors very low and airlines profitable. That’s why people wore their Sunday best. The airline industry will bounce back, but it will be super expensive and/or very uncomfortable.

You’re going to get two airlines and you’re going to hate both of them. Older business jets and turboprops are flying their wings off in charter. Trust me, the folks who used to fly in First class and subsidize the bus traffic in the back don’t give a damn about whether you can get to Orlando for $69.

As a regional pilot, I can understand the sentiment here. The service is pretty terrible amongst the airlines, I agree.

It’s an industry at the mercy of fuel prices, labor costs, and economy downturns. It’s a “feast or famine” industry.

Air travel was much, much more expensive before deregulation of the industry. Should we go back to that? I don’t have the answer.

It looks like eventually they will all be like Spirit Airlines and you’ll have to fistfight to get your seat.

Right now let's separate the freight side from the passenger side. FEDEX and UPS are incredibly run and economically sound operations. Deregulation was the worst thing that ever happened to the Airline Industry, only second to the dissolution of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Airlines used to operate in a much more regulated environment, routes and slots were controlled, not played like poker chips. The name of the game in Airline Board rooms is frequency, frequency, more frequency, and golden parachutes. Stock prices mean little, Airlines are essential service, and CEO's know that they can make terrible operating decisions, run to DC for a handout, and proceed back to business as normal.

The part you left out is that among the regulations were what you have to charge for a flight leg. So, your $49 Spirit fare HAD to be $459.

Also, cargo is waaay more profitable than people, who are a complete pain in the arse. If American could get away with just packing airplanes full of cargo and no passengers, they would in a heartbeat. I don’t think some of you realize what you’re asking for. Being able to go 500mph more cheaply than you can drive is a damn miracle.

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You mean like we’re doing now to avoid a virus with a 99% survival rate?

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No. I mean like in 2008 when the sub-prime mortgage crisis threatened a global economic meltdown. What they are doing now is pure election year politics. Each party wants credit for the stimulus spending and says frick the national debt.

Let's be honest you have $38 hr airline greeters.

How the fu does that come to pass?