Originally Posted by
vrbaba
And yes, I think if every seat was bought as deep discounted fare, it might not be profitable for AA. I am all for paying the "real economic fare". Airtravel would be much less of a hassle for infrequent travelers and you wont see people upset and arguing about rules with gate agents.
It's hard to know what the real cost of operating these flights is, but if you take the figures from the last 10K filing, then add a bit for increased fuel cost, the round trip I mentioned probably ought to be in the $350-400 + tax range rather than $250. At that point the traffic would fall off to an extent that if all seats on all routes were priced above the average economic cost there would be a lot less infrequent travellers, AA would have to downsize substantially and the whole game would change.
The answer is probably a mix of the two - less capacity & higher prices leading to better, profitable carriers, but then of course the politicians hate the idea of less competition. I personally can't see the point of blindly insisting on competition to the point that every carrier is heading for Bankruptcy but that's a totally different argument.