How are you determining the size of the market? Is it by revenue or passenger miles flown? I betcha by revenue, it is a significant portion of the overall market. It costs $15,000 to fuel a private jet going to Europe or Asia. Wouldn't the airlines like that revenue instead?

You also have to remember is that in a previous lifetime, it was that small percentage of high-yield passengers that made an airline profitable. It was those passengers who pay multipliers above the CASM cost that made an airline profitable. "Everybody" says that the legacy model is broken. Who were those people, and where are they now? As the biz-jet market grows, it's those high-yield passengers who disappear first.

When I worked for UA, the most expensive ticket you could buy was a one-way INT'L F seat to Asia. At the time, they ran $8,000 one way. A 747-400 holds 50,000 gallons of fuel, fully loaded. At current fuel prices, it costs about $110,000 to fuel the plane. If you can sell all 12 F suites at the full sticker price, you'll still need to make $14,000 in the rest of the plane just to break even on the marginal costs. However, if you can't sell those F Suites at full retail, you have to generate 110,000 from the back of the plane. UA has 260 Y seats in the 744, so at 80% LF, you'd have to generate $530 per just to break even on the marginal costs.

The airlines realize that the biz jet/private charter industry is a major threat to their business. They NEED that revenue back. Desperately. They're fighting with congress over how certain aspects of the FAA are funded. They are trying to force business jet users to pay significantly more money to use the air traffic system.


Do you have a better answer? The airlines are fighting for a smaller portion of the revenue pie. The big pieces of the pie don't fly on airlines. While the pie is getting smaller, the airlines' costs are going up.

My bad. Your other friend in this thread fessed up to the $859 ticket.