GeeWizDriver

Absolutely agree with this statement. I call them "amateur airline passengers" and they are one of the reasons I drive to begin my week on the road whenever possible. They all seem to be going to Las Vegas and wreaking unbelievable havoc on The Strip. It is so bad the Wynn and other hotels are RAISING their rates to deflect this clientele. Just the savings on not having to renovate trashed hotel rooms makes the numbers work.

Soxfan1

Another factor in why filling up to capacity albeit at low fares even if it means not making money on said flight is still important - bag fees. Unlike change fees/cancel fees, airlines are not waving or even lowering these bag fees, including overweight and excess bag fees. Sans SWA, there is sure some extra cash out there being made on these fees.

Also, getting people comfortable with flying again could spur those traveling now to book again in a few months.

Also - getting people to fly again is a revenue driver for airports, cities, port authorities, concessions and airport retail, plus car rentals and airport hotels. Wile not directly helping airlines - keeping this massive support structure intact is beneficial for the airlines recovery. (Some airlines that own their terminals do make money on retail/food and other income sources from being a landlord).

I guess I’m saying that getting people in seats even at cost, or less, can still have lots of positive effects on airlines - and all the industry that supports airlines , either now or down the road.

Knobcrk1

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna124

cant trust people to do the right thing. That’s why numbers are still down.

flyinthrew

That was on MARCH FIRST. There is an incredible onslaught today of Covid fear mongering which is remarkable considering all of the other things happening in the country. This study is actually about how excellent our preventive measures have become since March, despite the article.

Also, this thread is not about mask wearing. There are other threads for this.

Trappy

It is not a sustainable practice though. Airlines will eventually have to slash capacity and raise ticket prices significantly to stop the bleeding. This will curb demand even more unless passengers come running back asap

Excargodog

What I think we are going to find out is that IN THIS PARTICULAR SITUATION - some business models simply work better than others.

if a year ago you had asked me what the optimum major would be, I might well have told you one of the legacies with a good diversification of premium, business class, economy, and international flying, with different aircraft optimized to support each of those missions.

In THIS situation though, International flying doesn’t look to be coming back fast, Business class is returning slowly as well and may be a decade getting back to 2019 numbers (if ever). And multi fleet carriers are looking at enormous training churn, particularly if they furlough.

So right now a business model like that of SWA or Spirit or Frontier is looking pretty damn good, primarily domestic, lot of leisure, not very dependent upon business or first class, and everyone on the same type rating.

These companies are going to be able to use their low CASM to keep the Big Three bleeding money trying to match their discounted fares while themselves breaking even. Either that or the Big Three must cede market share. A Hob’s choice.

TransWorld

Yes, a long projection, and I will receive flack for it -

If we get vaccines with large inoculations by spring, summer could be as predicted, 80% of normal. Seriously.

RiddleEagle18

769,936
31.6%

Climbing slowly still


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LoneStar32

Well, that was March 1st. But even so, that headline probably scared a whole lot of people who didn't read the article like you.

Soxfan1

1.3% wow gain on YoY%. That is actually a solid growth rate that we have not seen on a Monday in the past 6 weeks or so (I exclude Labor Day). After Sundays wow gain of another solid 1%, we maybe starting a trend of faster growth (any growth over 1% WoW for me is what I consider “good” - since that trends to 4-5% monthly growth, and would put us at 80% this time next year).

But to your point, two days doesn’t mean anything so I’ll say slow growth is probably accurate but we maybe seeing the growth rate increase. Something to watch this week.