airtrader

What's Really Wrong With The Airline Industry - And Can It Be Fixed?

Basically a fairly good review of the industry, however shows a very limited understanding of the structural issues that distinguish Southwest from the rest of the industry.

Also, nothing about the FAA which operates the airway system as well as the airline oversight. Ticket taxes have raised about $10 billion in the time frame mentioned with noine of it spent to impove the ATC system, and most gping to non-airline expenditures. That is what cuases these horrible delays that the press is too lazy to report correctly. No crew wants to have their passengers sitting on the runway

Southwest operates one aircraft type because that is the most cost effective method of operating an airline. That is their plan which can be copied by anypne. Southewest also operates in many airports that have inetrnational service. Examples are Baltimore, St Louis, Seattle, Washington, San Francsico, Los Angeles, Pittsburg, Orlando, Phoenix, Detroit etc. They are able to operate more cost effectively because they have the strong balance sheet that enables them to hedge fuel where most post bancruptcy major airlines cannot. Fuel cost IS the business. Their "Minimal" service is usually better than the major carriers. They undersell their service and the other guys oversell.

There was never a good reason for Delta or others to operate 7-10 different aircraft types. If they had used the Southwest philophy, they could have handles most domestic flights with one or two types and most international also with one or two types.