7 ms·

According to this story [1], in 2012 airlines made just $0.37 per passenger trip. So, while I think the inefficient pricing is in need of repair, to say that pr

According to this story [1], in 2012 airlines made just $0.37 per passenger trip. So, while I think the inefficient pricing is in need of repair, to say that prices are too high, is unfortunately not true. I hate paying for transcontinental flights as much as the next guy, but what other way can you cover 3000 miles that cheaply and quickly? [1] http://online.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536 http://online.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-fo...

jib 12y ago
Is that because of pricing or because of company structure/setup though? Ryanair is currently predicting 510M profit on 81M trips in Europe for 2014. Not saying they are a model company in any way (the main thing I disagree with is some of their employee treatment), but they are certainly proving that it is possible to operate a profitable airline with low prices and high quality.
- jacob019 12y ago
  only $6.30 profit per trip and that's the best example of a profitable airline, crazy
  - jib 12y ago
    That is on about 3-4B revenue or so though, so its actually a pretty good profit margin.
    - jacob019 12y ago
      That would be only $49 in revenue per trip, seems low.
      - Someone1234 12y ago
        When you put it in those terms it seems almost insane. How can any company operate on such low margins? I mean, yes, the "Walmart model" is the answer, but it seems like they could go under very easily if hit by something unexpected.
        epochwolf 12y ago
        > it seems like they could go under very easily if hit by something unexpected They do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_bankruptcies_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_bankruptcies_in_the_Uni...
        fennecfoxen 12y ago
        There's an old joke about this: How do you make a million dollars in the airline business? Well, you start with a billion dollars...
      - ssharp 12y ago
        I have no idea how airline accounting works, but if these numbers are correct, you'd have to assume quite a bit of money collected is not counted as revenue and is going to cover direct costs like taxes.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- enraged_camel 12y ago
  Calling RyanAir "high quality" must be some kind of joke.
discardorama 12y ago
> in 2012 airlines made just $0.37 per passenger trip. But how much of the costs are due to inefficiencies? Every time I fly, I am amazed at how long the agents have to keep typing away on their keyboards just for simple tasks.
serve_yay 12y ago
The prices are more than we would like to pay so of course someone is screwing us. It can't just be that moving us around costs a bunch of money.

jib 12y ago

Is that because of pricing or because of company structure/setup though? Ryanair is currently predicting 510M profit on 81M trips in Europe for 2014. Not saying they are a model company in any way (the main thing I disagree with is some of their employee treatment), but they are certainly proving that it is possible to operate a profitable airline with low prices and high quality.

jacob019 12y ago
only $6.30 profit per trip and that's the best example of a profitable airline, crazy
- jib 12y ago
  That is on about 3-4B revenue or so though, so its actually a pretty good profit margin.
  - jacob019 12y ago
    That would be only $49 in revenue per trip, seems low.
    - Someone1234 12y ago
      When you put it in those terms it seems almost insane. How can any company operate on such low margins? I mean, yes, the "Walmart model" is the answer, but it seems like they could go under very easily if hit by something unexpected.
      - epochwolf 12y ago
        > it seems like they could go under very easily if hit by something unexpected They do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_bankruptcies_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_bankruptcies_in_the_Uni...
      - fennecfoxen 12y ago
        There's an old joke about this: How do you make a million dollars in the airline business? Well, you start with a billion dollars...
    - ssharp 12y ago
      I have no idea how airline accounting works, but if these numbers are correct, you'd have to assume quite a bit of money collected is not counted as revenue and is going to cover direct costs like taxes.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
enraged_camel 12y ago
Calling RyanAir "high quality" must be some kind of joke.

discardorama 12y ago

> in 2012 airlines made just $0.37 per passenger trip. But how much of the costs are due to inefficiencies? Every time I fly, I am amazed at how long the agents have to keep typing away on their keyboards just for simple tasks.

serve_yay 12y ago

The prices are more than we would like to pay so of course someone is screwing us. It can't just be that moving us around costs a bunch of money.