I think it is about time to hear a CEO say these words... "...we are not going to live in a world where you have to take concessions, so people can fly from NYC to FL for $69 a ticket."

Go to R. Anderson's link on the right then go about 2:00 mins into the speach. Heres the link:
http://vidego.multicastmedia.com/player.php?v=95dfl99d

 

Amen!!! But actions are stronger than words. I hope for all of us that this atitude realizes and becomes the common trend among all reputable airlines.

 

I hope it works out that way. I, too, enjoy flying as inexpensively as possible, but I understand that paying $500 or more to get all the way across the country in one day is a bargain.

Watching the news reaction to the merger there were comments like "What is this going to mean for the consumer? It might mean prices go up. I sure hope not, flying is expensive enough already."

Meanwhile these are the same reporters who, two weeks earlier, were commenting on how four airlines had gone out of business in a matter of weeks and where saying things like "What is wrong with the airline industry?"

Obviously airlines should be as efficient as possible in order to keep costs at a minimum while providing good service and a profitable business. We all know what the problem is though, everyone undercutting everyone else.

 

Somebody a hell of a lot older than I am once said: "Talk is cheap"!

 

Raise the prices. The airlines need it.

The traveling public needs to realize that even paying $100-$200 more per flight is still a bargain compared to how much it would cost them to drive the same trip (longer trips of course).

I find it amazing that what airlines we have left have managed to stay afloat with the low ticket prices that some have been charging. Maybe I'm biased because I can appreciate a little better the hard work and training that goes into safely hurling 200 people across the country in a metal tube 6 miles above the Earth, than the majority of people who take that feat for granted every single day.

Their $78 contribution to an airline gets them 1500nm away from where they started.

I imagine the GA guys are likely to agree these days, as well. You can't fly an archer on even a 400nm trip for less than maybe $600-$700 (rental + gas) I figure. So being *forced* to pay that much to travel several thousand miles in the safety and comfort of an airliner is a STEAL.

 

So true, dude. I just went to get checked out in a 2005 182 (with the nice G1000). 1.5 hour flight plus instructor time was $435! And the damn jack-off CFI wants me to do another flight because even though I handled the plane fine he wants me to get "more experience with the nav." I don't need the nav, I'm a daytime VFR fair weather flyer when I fly civilian! I'm getting checked out because my father-in-law wants to fly every now and then, but doesn't want to drop all the coin for getting his own license (retiring soon). Wants to take trips to Monterey and stuff. It is only about a 1.6 to Monterey, but to get there and back is going to be about $700. Much quicker than driving the 5.5 hours with the wives though.

 

and bethune wrote something similar in his book and the month after he left, kellner,the next ceo, asked for concessions?

the priceless part is that they added years to bethunes employment to boost his retirement...

 

I dont understand how people can throw a hundred bucks in gas in their cars yet complain about airline ticket prices? Dollar for dollar you still get further, faster and more efficiently by air. Its amazing that more airlines have not gone under with the latest problems facing the industry.

 

This quote sounds like something out of the Ford and Harrison playbook. Make great promises and tell the employees what they want to hear all the while setting up the stage to make it impossible to happen. Keeps dissention down. Didn't Delta hire that dude from F&H anyway to run the HR department? Now why would they do that ?