Originally Posted by
bocastephen
Remember economics 101. Airlines don’t dictate airfares, the market does. If they raise fares above what the market is willing to pay, people will stop buying tickets and that will force a reduction in airfares.
Economics 101: if supply is constrained, the provider of the supply can charge a higher price for the now limited supply, driving out some of those who could previously afford it when the supply was higher.
Originally Posted by
bocastephen
Gains in aircraft efficiency and the reduction of onboard staffing due to reduced capacity will offset the missing seats in the long run.
Not necessarily. Since the staffing requirement is a step scale, a reduction in seating from 150 seats (requiring 3 FAs) by 17% to 125 seats still requires 3 FAs. A 200 seat aircraft currently requiring 4 FAs will still have 166 seats and still require 4 FAs. With many narrowbody aircraft currently operating right on the upper limit of the step scale before needing an additional FA, changing the seating layout from 3-3 to 3-2 isn't enough to drive a change in cabin crew staffing requirements on most aircraft - it just significantly reduces the amount of paying passengers for which that cost can be spread around.
Originally Posted by
bocastephen
As to LCCs, it’s not society’s duty to ensure a viable business model exists for a corporation.
Driving out the business models that have brought affordable air travel and made it available to more than the upper class doesn't sound like it's benefiting society. You said in your OP you don't care about airline shareholders, analysts, or executives but what about the segment of society that would be cut out from air travel by making it uneconomical on the mass scale that it currently is? Also, what about the downstream effects - both to the airlines themselves and continuing onward throughout many other aspects of society - that would happen from forcing several airlines to go under/cease operations and and several others to significantly reduce the size of their operations and also what about the fallout from this driving up costs elsewhere?