The current state of the airline industry Options

[Hartmann]

Things are getting really ugly, really quick.

United has reduced capacity, is cutting staff, and is killing of their low-cost carrier TED.
US Airways has not fulfilled its order for two planes that could fly their new route to China, so they'll lose the route and they're reducing capacity.
The Delta/Northwest Merger isn't complete yet, so who knows the outcome.
Continental announced this morning that they are reducing capacity and cutting some staffing.
ExpressJet (who Continental employs to fly their little jets) is on the verge of Ch11.
Southwest has raised fares considerably.
JetBlue has cut a number of routes.
AA is nickel and diming customers to make up the costs.


yikes.

[Oasis]

Everything is getting worse in this country (cue impala to come in and defend America as being as good as it was ten years ago, even though it's not)

It's a trickle down effect and it's speeding up even faster than I thought.

[impala454]

I didn't realize the airlines constituted "everything". Melodrama at its finest.

[Hartmann]

I didn't realize the airlines constituted "everything". Melodrama at its finest.

Airlines aren't everything but they're a good representation of what is going on.

With less people flying it is indicative of people spending less on leisure items. In turn, the airlines will cut flights and raise prices, causing even fewer people to fly.

[impala454]

With less people flying it is indicative of people spending less on leisure items.

You've gotta be kidding me. How the hell can you correlate flying with spending less on leisure items???

[Hartmann]

You've gotta be kidding me. How the hell can you correlate flying with spending less on leisure items???

Flying, vacationing, etc. is a leisure item. You aren't required to have it and you do it at your leisure.

No, it isn't a TV or a Playstation but travel is considered leisure. People not traveling as much = people spending less on travel = less spent on leisure items.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...toryId=90957062

I fail to see why that is hard to understand.

[impala454]

Because flying isn't the only form of leisure. Nor is it exclusively a form of leisure. It's dumb to analyze leisure as a whole based on one form of it. That'd be like saying "McDonald's profits are down so everyone must be spending less on eating out."

in fact, I'd venture to guess than lowering profits in the airline industry would be more due to businesses flying less than vacationers.

[Hartmann]

Because flying isn't the only form of leisure. Nor is it exclusively a form of leisure. It's dumb to analyze leisure as a whole based on one form of it. That'd be like saying "McDonald's profits are down so everyone must be spending less on eating out."

in fact, I'd venture to guess than lowering profits in the airline industry would be more due to businesses flying less than vacationers.

Business flying is up actually. I'll have to find the report.

Considering fares are up nearly 150% since last year, less people are flying, period. I've had to fly the last few weeks and haven't seen as many vacationers on my flights, that's for sure.

It is just one indicator (and a pretty darn good one) when the amount of leisure travelers go down. It's the same type of thing when there are less drivers on the road during a holiday. I dunno, seems like common sense to me.

Equating McD's to flying is not a good example. It would be more like flying and a "nicer restaurant". Less people eating at mid-priced restaurants is a sign of something.

[impala454]

It is just one indicator (and a pretty darn good one) when the amount of leisure travelers go down.

that's fine. leisure travel I can agree with.

[THECHICKEN]

Everything is getting worse in this country (cue impala to come in and defend America as being as good as it was ten years ago, even though it's not)

It's a trickle down effect and it's speeding up even faster than I thought.

and it happened

[impala454]

Well thats good that he at least saw how stupid his statement would be in advance.

[chook]

Cost of fuel is hurting them. America can't stay afloat long with the price of oil.

[impala454]

It's going back down. We'll be fine. Of course, you don't see any news when oil prices start going down. They've gone down nearly $10/barrel in the past week or so. Oh but when they go up every media outlet out there is predicting doom. It was the top story the whole time it was increasing. Now go to CNN.com or MSNBC.com, you can't even find the words "oil" or "gas" on the front page. Gimme a break. I swear people are sheep.

[Psykopath]

When the price of oil goes up, the price at the pump goes up really quick.
When the price of oil goes down, the price of the pump stays the same... (or at least it has this time around...dropped $10 a barrel but it's still hovering around $3.89 a gallon in Lubbock)

[impala454]

Nah... you just see it that way because you hate the current prices. It simply lags the price of oil. Remember when oil shot up like $20/barrel but gas didn't go up all that much? Well now it's reflecting those prices. It lags because the gas price reflects the oil price paid at the time the gas was made.