Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

I would add that when considering everything that many or most European individuals get back from their taxes including free or very cheap, high-quality health care, free or nominally priced medicine, subsidized housing, free university education, cash support to raise their children, minimum of five weeks paid vacation per year, often a 13th month of salary to pay for vacation and a 14th month of salary for Christmas, unlimited sick leave, generous unemployment insurance paying 70% of their last salary for three years or more, generous pension programs, safe streets, state of the art highways and public transportation systems, etc. that looking at a net-net comparison, most Europeans are taxed much less than their American counterparts. Maintaining 700+ imperial military bases around the world is an expensive business to be in. How much higher could your taxes be if you didn't have to pay for insurance, save for your retirement, save for your kids education and didn't have to worry about living on the street if you had a run of bad luck and got cancer, lost your job, lost your job-based insurance and lost your home?
Indeed. So, not only are American citizens penalized by not having security of health care with or without a job, but American companies are penalized by doing business in the only rich country where they pay these costs rather than them being covered by all citizens for all citizens. No wonder so many companies are jumping ship and moving their operations outside of the US.

pacer142

Me, me!

There are quite a lot of us. The early-morning flights out of the London airports have a good passenger load of regulars - must be about 10% of the Monday morning LTN-GVA at least.

There are also people who commute to different countries for "normal" (non-contract) work.

Neil

jiejie

I don't live in either Europe or the USA, but when I have to fly within each, I find Europe air fares all-in, shockingly high in comparison, esp on a per km/mile basis, so resorting to the train (which also isn't exactly cheap anymore) is often more expedient there. Of course, not really an option for most long-distance USA travel. I don't "do" LCC's in either location so I can't use that as a basis for comparison--and at any rate the total capacity of LCC seats as a % of what's on offer per region is relatively small and therefore probably isn't the best pricing to use for comparisons. Maybe one's perception is colored by the specific routes they usually need to fly, and how often one can find a "deal" for their city pairs.

MatthewLAX

If the OP actually flew in the United States, he would know that airfare is not that bad...

I live in Germany and pay a lot more for travel, particularly on a per/km basis. Take out the fares for ultra LCCs (which don't take into account the nickel and diming for ticketing fees, credit card fees, check-in fees, bag fees, the cost to get to airports 2hrs outside of city center) and Europe is even more expensive.

diamond404

Last time I was flying around intra-Europe, I'd say it was pretty equivalent to cheap Southwest prices, with equal service...