Originally Posted by
todd1200
I keep hearing statements like this, but they don't seem to take into account the people that were previously above the customer base that are now falling back into it and are suddenly more price conscious than they were a few months ago. I have no idea what the data suggests, but wouldn't it stand to reason that if most people are falling a few rungs down the financial ladder, there will be people falling down from above, down into the target demographic?
What all this fails to take into account is at least 2 of the big 3 (and SWA and Alaska) are too big and systemically important (to borrow the 2008 phrase) to fail. That distinction will start to have material consequences in terms of access to capital and government support/aid.
I think we’ve already begun to see it in how CARES is designed for the network hub/spoke system to shed flights while maintaining service. The point to point airlines were unsuccessful in getting the service requirements waived in a way that works for them. I suspect this bias will intensify as the economic crisis continues and deepens.