Airlines Raise Prices
Perhaps the biggest news in aviation last week slipped by with but little notice.
It was the big story, front page and center of USA Today on Wednesday, April 12: “Airlines raise base fares sharply, still fill planes.”
Everybody shout Hallelujah!
Why am I, a fellow who makes a living speaking at conventions, conferences, and other business meetings, happy to see airfares rise? Because it is so obvious that the airlines can’t continue to lose money on every ticket but also stay in business. I need airlines as does the country so I want them to profit and prosper.
Yes, the airlines are currently carrying more people more safely and for a lot less money. Many experts say we are now paying on average and after adjusting for inflation less for airfare than ever before in history and this in a time of exploding fuel prices. But it couldn’t go on. Airlines have been losing great gobs of money almost faster than our national debt goes up. Something had to give.
I, for one, was beginning to wonder just how long bankrupt airlines could keep maintaining the astonishing nearly perfect safety record. I don’t know the answer, but I did think about it. If this is the beginning of a turnaround, please let it be noted and remembered that it was praise God from whom all blessings flow achieved by market forces, not by guvmint.
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Juno–
Then how do you explain the reported info that last week several airlines raised prices by $5, then all of them chickened out and lowered them back? Just $5. As a friend asked, do you think anyone would choose one airline over another to save just $5?
Thanks for writing,
Ralph HOod
Absolutely it would fill passengers because nothing can stop them form traveling even the fare….=)
Chris–
Thanks for the comment. How do you explain this? Why, do you think, the technicians work for the airlines instead of a car dealership?
Ralph Hood
I totally agree with your comments. Actually… I think it’s more the employees of the airlines who are subsidizing the low ticket prices. Being a Technician at a major airline, it often puzzles my work group that an automotive mechanic makes twice as much as an aircraft technician whose job holds the safety of thousands of lives daily.
Thanks, Nick.
Ralph
I could not agree more! Why should airlines subzidize the true cost of flying a passenger at the expense of the airline’s owners…stockholders. It’s about time that airlines charged the flying public the cost of their flight, and maybe even a little more so the airline makes a small profit.