Things Are About To Get Ugly

[MCI transplant]

<_< My point is: The general public don't know this! But you should! Yes! it takes a lot of differant people to make an Airline run! But the public are interested only in one thing these days! It's cheap fairs!!! As with the price of gasoline, they feel it's their God given right! And if it means that the employees of the Airline Industry must subsidize them, so be it!!!!!! :down:

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< I know what he answeer to all this is!!!! But I also know it'll never happen in todays envirement! And when I say it , you'll know way I qalified myself! It's some form of "RE-REGULATION"!!!! Dreamer that I am!!!!

 

[mweiss]

But the public are interested only in one thing these days! It's cheap fairs!!! As with the price of gasoline, they feel it's their God given right! And if it means that the employees of the Airline Industry must subsidize them, so be it!!!!!! :down:

The public cares about cheap fares for the same reason the public cares about cheap anything. Nobody wants to pay more than they have to for anything. If they do, they feel as if they are getting cheated.

This is a fundamental law of economics. You can wish that it were different, but I'll bet that you make your own purchases based on the same fundamental law.

Nobody believes it's their God-given right to have cheap fares, but let's not forget that everyone has a choice, every time. If it's too expensive, they won't fly at all. That is their God-given right. And if your competitor will take them to their destination for less, they can choose to give your competitor their business. That is also their God-given right.

Reregulation would be a disaster for the US economy. And to do it because you feel that you're underpaid would be the worst possible reason.

 

[Borescope]

Reregulation would be a disaster for the US economy. And to do it because you feel that you're underpaid would be the worst possible reason.

I have to agree with you on this one.

 

[WorldTraveler]

The next few years will undoubtedly allow the US airline industry to move where it has been trying to go for the past 25 years but has been blocked from going, particularly by the US government. There will undoubtedly be mid-course corrections needed, but we aren't returning to a regulated industry.

 

[Winglet]

Not "regulated"???? Are you kidding????? The airline industry is still the most regulated in the country. If they want a real free market for airlines, then put up takeoff and landing slots up to the highest bidder, airport space, stop subsidizing airlines servicing uneconomic small towns, prohibit the President from intervening on behalf of airline managements with PEBs, abolish the RLA, abolish crew rest and flight time restrictions, etc.

Not "regulated", my a$$.

 

[mweiss]

Winglet,

"Regulation" means different things in different contexts. Let's specifically look at the examples you put forth:

• Slots: They exist only at two airports. I agree that it should be at zero airports, but it's a tiny factor in the overall industry.
• EAS. This should go, too. Nonetheless, it's hardly a regulation; it's a subsidy.
• Presidential intervention/RLA. Yeah, this should go, too...but it doesn't prevent any airline from becoming competitive. If anything, it has probably helped.
• Crew rest, etc. Government regulates the safety of hundreds of different industries. You might as well call the automobile industry "heavily regulated" because they're required to put in airbags or antilock brakes, or call the tool industry heavily regulated because they're required to double-insulate and ground power tools. Safety is the one area where governmental control is absolutely necessary.

And how would you consider the airline industry to be the "most regulated in the country?" What's your basis for the claim? I can assure you I can think of many that are more heavily regulated.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< mweiss-------I guess I've taken too much for granted here! Back in the early to mid sixties, the cost of an Airline ticket from LAX to JFK, was about $600.00 round trip, coach! I was making less than $3.00@ hour as an A&P! The average cost of a new Chevy was under $3,000, the price of gas was about $.40 @ Gal.! Today the price of a round trip coach ticket can be less than $200!!!! I'm making $30+ an Hr. The cost of that Chevy is now in excess of $20,000! And gas is in some places here in the good ol US, in excess of $2.00@ Gal!!!! Now Mr. economics, do you see anything wrong with this picture??????

 

[mweiss]

Yes, I do. You forgot that the round-trip ticket (which actually can not currently be had for under about $230) can also be as much as $3,153 for coach. This, incidentally, is more than 1/5 the cost of a new Chevy Cavalier (the ratio you mention in your example)...it's in fact about 1/3 the cost (for those keeping score, that's about a 60% increase).

Oh, by the way...in the mid-sixties, you got more food on board, had more flight attendants to attend to you, got free decks of cards and stationery, and were less likely to have someone sitting next to you in the smoke-filled cabin.

Oh, by the way...in the mid-sixties, the Chevy was much less well made than the 2004 Cavalier.

In any case, I'm not sure what your point is. Prices do not move in lockstep.

Some things become cheaper. Imagine, for instance, how much a 4GHz computer with 1GB RAM and 100GB of online DASD would have cost in 1965. I'll give you a hint...the best stuff that the DOD had at the time wouldn't come close to what you can get for a couple hundred bucks today.

On the other hand, some things become much more expensive. Nobody would have believed in 1965, for instance, that the cheapest houses in San Francisco would be over a half-million dollars by the end of the century...in the bad parts of town.

Such is the nature of an economy.

 

[WorldTraveler]

There are plenty of rebates available to get that Chevy down to well below $20K. Low oil prices are probably forever gone and it is not just an American phenomenon; oil production worldwide is likely incapable of keeping up with the demand from the traditional oil importers as well as the new oil-fueled economies in Asia. National Geographic had a cover article on the subject a couple months ago but I did not get a chance to read it. Airlines will have to factor in those kind of fuel prices into their business models.

 

[flythewing]

I'm making $30+ an Hr. The cost of that Chevy is now in excess of $20,000! And gas is in some places here in the good ol US, in excess of $2.00@ Gal!!!! Now Mr. economics, do you see anything wrong with this picture??????

A whole lot of people Still aren't making $30 / hour.

 

[The Ronin]

Neither will any of UAL maintenance when this is over......

 

[MCI transplant]

Well! I see this is going nowhere! So from someone who's been through it, all I can say is "Good Luck to all!" Signed: Just another of a.a.'s redheaded step children!!!"

 

[mrfish3726]

Neither will any of UAL maintenance when this is over......

Ronin,

Your right about that, nothing but sacrifice and slaughter again in UAL's Maintenance Department. Remember what that one a$$ said in the old regime. "We are in the people moving business, not the maintenance business" :down:

Did get a surprise though, got the RETRO CK for JULY, one more and I can finally not worry what UAL OWES ME