Originally Posted by
superangrypenguin
Wholly disagree. Flying has become more and more affordable. This means airlines' profit margins are decreasing. How can the price continue to go down?
More and more efficient planes. Tighter and tighter seating. Why are all US airlines going HD? Because they're competitive as hell for driving down fares.
I would suggest looking up gross margins for airlines over the years. I'm almost positive (I don't have time right now) that the GM's has gotten lower and lower.
Pretty sure UA recorded a 10%+ profit margin for 2015 (4.5bn on revenue of 36bn). Then it announced 10-across 777s. Cut it however you want, they aren't using that 10% margin to give back 10% legroom. Or even 3% (1"). It's all being booked as profit, and now they're reducing seat width by what...5%?