Originally Posted by
billdokes
It's a zero sum game for the airlines...it will just come back in the fares so some will win and everyone will lose.
Not saying I disagree with it, but it will just work it's way in as an input cost to building the fare structure, just like a rise in the price of fuel or wages.
I'm not sure that's right. One often hears that consumer-protection regulation is bad because airlines will just raise prices. But it would have this effect (or at least should have this effect) only if airlines think raising prices is the best way to maximise profit given the new regulation. It might be. But it could be that raising prices will hurt passenger numbers and the best course of action is to do more to reduce cancellations.
Some airline travel is relatively insensitive to price, but a lot of it is price-sensitive discretionary travel, and it's not obvious that just baking these costs into ticket prices would be the astute business move for an airline. (It remains striking that the EU market is both the home of very cheap flights and very demanding regulations.)