Bad times for Airlines

Norteman

New member
Dec 15, 2008
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A friend looked up a cheap flight to SDQ the other day from Dallas, and i believe it was 500usd yet another 200ish in taxes. This example only existed in his quote to tyhe DR unlike mexico where he has decided to go due to this ridiculuos overtax grab.
 

Beads

Bronze
May 21, 2006
607
30
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The airlines are crying poverty yet they have less routes than last year and the cost of fuel is cheaper. I see Continental charging $150-$200 more per seat than last year and the flights still seem as booked as much as last year or even more.

Try cutting some fat off the top(CEOs, CFOs etc) and leave the routes and workers alone and maybe the airfares could be more reasonably priced and more people would have their jobs.

Everyone is looking for a bailout these days and there are too many overpaid executives around.
 

edm7583

New member
May 29, 2007
388
32
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Better let them cut megamillion bonuses of just one CEO. Savings will be much more than from cutting 30 000 low paid slaves.

Airlines have huge profits from cheating on us.
Read here:

Airlines add fees -- and some fees on top of fees - Yahoo! Finance

How are we being cheated?? In general we are paying far, far less for air travel than a generation or two ago. On a roundtrip flight from Florida to the Northeast I paid $300 in 1980 (which would be the equivalent of paying around $800 today) yet in 2009 I paid $156 for almost the identical route. I never thought I would see the day Where I would fly to the DR roundtrip for about $175 all taxes in, yet I did it twice this year. And people complain about paying $15 to check a bag and not having a lousy free meal??

As for the CEO's. Bravo. Spoken like a true neo-socialist. CEO's just like everyone else, have to be paid the market value for their labor and their skill. If airlines did not give out generous pay and bonuses, in line with the market for their talent, they would simply leave and go somewhere else.

The reason the airlines are doing poorly is simple. The public will not allow them to charge a fare that has them make a profit or break even. If they raised their fares to levels where they would be profitable, people would balk at their fares, the planes would fly empty, and the airline would lose money. Keep fares extra low and the crowds come in and the planes are full, but even with full planes they lose money as the fares they are charging do not allow them to make money, Either way they lose money. The only way for them to stay afloat is to reduce service levels to basic public transportation. (Which essentially it is, considering the price you're paying) and rely on ancillary revenue like fees for checked bags, soda, snacks, on board advertising) in the hopes of maybe turning a profit of a penny or two someday.
 
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