alt Hacker NewsWith the oligopoly situation, us Americans don't usually have a point of reference, so here's one from a trip I've taken: Indonesia to Malaysia (DPS to KUL), an international 3 hour flight one-way, for $62 on Air Asia [1]. There is enough leg room that you can cross your legs, and they will feed you a meal! There may be some regional differences in "labor" like the US Major airlines claim, but I don't think enough to match the reality of their scalping.
[1] https://www.google.com/travel/flights/search?tfs=CBwQAhoeEgo...
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> With the oligopoly situation
I saw the article use the term "legacy carrier", and was curious about its actual definition, and while skimming its wikipedia article read that we went from ten major US carriers in 1991 to just four today (Alaska/Hawaiian, American, Delta, United). Oof.
While many great things did come from deregulation, US airlines' tendencies to race to the bottom and consolidate are not among them. To be fair, though, the more consolidation, the less competition, and the less of a need for that race.
So I'm not sure. Certainly labor costs elsewhere contribute to significantly lower-cost routes, and flights in the US are way cheaper than they were in the 80s and prior, and I think, inflation-adjusted, they're still historically very low, perhaps at their lowest. So what's more expensive in the US? Labor, certainly. Regulation imposes a cost, perhaps more of one here than elsewhere? Are many carriers in other places in the world heavily subsidized by their governments, so they can offer cheaper fares and better service?
It's not scalping. Airlines are a low margin business. Southwest is 2% margin. Delta is 6%. AirAsia is one of the higher ones at over 12%. Most airlines can't do what they do though. AirAsia went out and built a parallel supply chain in Malaysia. They're not only getting lower crew costs, but lower labor costs at every level of operation. They're also paying less for fuel, less for planes, less to acquire customers, less in compensation fees because their planes are punctual, etc. It's not a model replicable by American carriers.