When I read something like this one thing comes to mind

[usa1]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/business/a-business-travelers-view-of-the-latest-airline-merger.html

 
1978 national average prices:

Cost of a new home: $62,500.00
Cost of a new car: $7,500
Cost of a first-class stamp:$0.13
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $0.63
Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.82
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $1.71
Cost of an average 250 mile plane ticket: $100.00

2013 national average prices:

Cost of a new home: $234,000.00
Cost of a new car: $30,000
Cost of a first-class stamp:$0.46
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $3.45
Cost of a dozen eggs: $3.39
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $3.44
Cost of an average 250 mile plane ticket: $100.00

 

 

[jimntx]

Them's some mighty expensive eggs at $3.39/doz. Do they come from college-degreed chickens? Here in Dallas, a dozen extra-large eggs is $1.89 at Kroger. Oh, and I paid $3.14/gal for premium gas the other night.

 

[usa1]

So the price of eggs has come down since those figures were released!!!! ... Yeppy, they're "only" up 120%. Wish I could say the same about airfares or my pay check. I make the same thing I did in 1991. And my union rep makes 3X what I do. Something's screwed up here?    
 
http://www.bls.gov/ro3/apmw.htm

 

[jimntx]

Re: the cost of eggs. I doubt they have come down in the Dallas area. Since I've been living here, they've gone up slightly. I'm guessing that egg price that you posted is a New York, Chicago, or LA price.

Re: Your pay and the price of airline tickets...It all goes along with the trend in major corporations where in 1978, the typical CEO made something like 4 times what the average employee in that same corporation made. Now, the multiple is in the hundreds.

"There's nothing surer, the rich get rich and the poor get poorer."

 

[usa1]

Re: the cost of eggs. I doubt they have come down in the Dallas area. Since I've been living here, they've gone up slightly. I'm guessing that egg price that you posted is a New York, Chicago, or LA price.Re: Your pay and the price of airline tickets...It all goes along with the trend in major corporations where in 1978, the typical CEO made something like 4 times what the average employee in that same corporation made. Now, the multiple is in the hundreds."There's nothing surer, the rich get rich and the poor get poorer."

Probably explains why my union rep makes 3X what I make.

 

[signals]

Hmmm, is this the USA?  I guess it depends on where you live.
In my area...
 
Cost of a new home: $106,000.00
Cost of a new car: $20,000
Cost of a first-class stamp:$0.46
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $3.50
Cost of a dozen eggs: $1.89
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $2.50
Cost of an average 250 mile plane ticket: $100.00(?)
 

 

[ChockJockey]

2013 national average prices:
 
Cost of an average 250 mile plane ticket: $100.00

 
The one thing that comes to my mind is to ask what airline is selling 250 mile plane tickets for and below $100 in the U.S. in 2013.  Some of Southwest's lowest Wanna Get Away™ fares actually go to $99 but there's no way $100 is the average price for a 250 mile flight.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Hmmm, is this the USA?  I guess it depends on where you live.
In my area...
 
Cost of a new home: $106,000.00
Cost of a new car: $20,000
Cost of a first-class stamp:$0.46
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $3.50
Cost of a dozen eggs: $1.89
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $2.50
Cost of an average 250 mile plane ticket: $100.00(?)
 

 
Well, of course it depends on where in the country you live.  A one bedroom condo in Manhattan can go for $2 million.  In South Dakota, you can probably build several castles on an entire ranch purchased for that price.
 
THE POINT of the post was to illustrate the huge disparity in prices of things in general vs. airline tickets over the time span, not to argue over the current price of real estate.

 

[usa1]

Airline employees started subsidizing cheap tickets many years ago.   

 

[swamt]

 
The one thing that comes to my mind is to ask what airline is selling 250 mile plane tickets for and below $100 in the U.S. in 2013.  Some of Southwest's lowest Wanna Get Away™ fares actually go to $99 but there's no way $100 is the average price for a 250 mile flight.

I believe that Southwest also just ran or is currently running the fall sale of fares as low as $69 bucks...

 

[PHL]

The list conveniently leaves out national income averages for 1978 versus today.  Quite a big difference.

 

[WorldTraveler]

I believe that Southwest also just ran or is currently running the fall sale of fares as low as $69 bucks...

 
the problem with airline tickets is that eggs and gás and your apartment rent/home mortgage aren't revenue managed... you can't get a cheaper price by buying in advance, stay over a Saturday etc.
 
That is why average fares in a matter and why the DOT collects statistics that often times show that WN's very good revenue management allows them to charge average fares higher than their competitors.
 
The fact that WN is the dominant carrier in most of its largest markets makes it possible for them to match capacity to demand and why WN's statements about being a low fare carrier need to be viewed with a grain of salt.
 
They may not offer the top tier level fares that the network carriers do but they end up making more Money... the fact that their costs aren't much lower than network carriers and yet their profits are considerably higher should be evidence of that reality.
 
After alll, WN doesn't have bag fees and other lucrative sources of revenue that legacy airlines have. It is either get the right amount of revenue the first time or miss it altogether.  WN is a máster at getting it right the first time... easy to do when you don't have competition in your largest markets.

 

[im back..!!]

the problem with airline tickets is that eggs and gás and your apartment rent/home mortgage aren't revenue managed... you can't get a cheaper price by buying in advance, stay over a Saturday etc.
 
That is why average fares in a matter and why the DOT collects statistics that often times show that WN's very good revenue management allows them to charge average fares higher than their competitors.
 
The fact that WN is the dominant carrier in most of its largest markets makes it possible for them to match capacity to demand and why WN's statements about being a low fare carrier need to be viewed with a grain of salt.
 
They may not offer the top tier level fares that the network carriers do but they end up making more Money... the fact that their costs aren't much lower than network carriers and yet their profits are considerably higher should be evidence of that reality.
 
After alll, WN doesn't have bag fees and other lucrative sources of revenue that legacy airlines have. It is either get the right amount of revenue the first time or miss it altogether.  WN is a máster at getting it right the first time... easy to do when you don't have competition in your largest markets.

They had competition in philly, run off by usairways (east)... The are still dominant in phx

 

[ChockJockey]

They had competition in philly, run off by usairways (east)... The are still dominant in phx

 
US is the dominant carrier in PHX, WN is #2 and DL is a distant 3rd.

 

[WorldTraveler]

WN doesn't like to have to compete directly against anyone but when they do they want to have a big enough cost difference between themselves and their competitors to ensure that WN can crush their competition.

WN thought they could do in PHL what they had done in DEN but found out that US was in a lot better financial shape than was UA or F9 at the time of the DEN buildup. Also, the cost difference was much smaller and US was much healthier by the time WN got to PHL.

However WN does still have a respectable presence from PHL but it isn't any large focus city by any stretch of the imagination.

Given PHX is a hub/large focus city for two other carriers, I would not expect to see any carrier be a close 3rd to WN or US.