Frontier said it had agreed to sell four planes to counter rising fuel costs.

What a novel idea. The pizzeria is selling their ovens to counter the high price of cheese.


http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080411/frontier_airlines_bankruptcy.html

 

There are too many empty planes with too many empty seats weighing down the industry. It would be better to blow the planes up for insurance money and reduce the excess capacity.

 

how often do you fly? i've flown 30~40 times since sept 11, and i've never seen a plane that was near empty. every one was nearly full. i've flown several times this year and each one was packed to the gill. there might have been 3 empty seats on each.

you must be speculating based on your experience before sept 11. i can't imagine anyone who travels regularly would say planes are mostly empty in today's world.

the problem isn't empty planes, it's too many carriers for too few passengers.

 

I agree with the crowded planes issue, but wouldn't that means there weren't enough carriers?

 

You may be flying on higher-demand routes. If, in your own words, there are too many carriers for too few passengers, there has got to be empty planes and empty seats somewhere. It isn't as though the airlines were operating with the perfect number of planes at 100% capacity.

 

not necessarily. it's possible to have nearly full planes but still too many carriers. that's what we're seeing now. planes are usually filled up but companies still lose money because they're in price wars with too many competitors. once capacity decreases, they can raise their prices and reach profitable equilibrium.

 

The seats are full, but full of passengers who aren't even covering the costs.

I took 23 flights in the month of January including many cross-country flights. My total cost including taxes = $570. No friggin way the airline makes any money off of that.

Way too much capacity chasing limited yield. The industry needs to aggressively cut capacity, and let fares rise.

 

lol..

Funny but oh so true.

Very succinct.

 

Can you provide some ideas on how to get tickets that low?

Thanks,

 

Air Canada has 'flight passes', whereby, you pay between $560 and $800 per month, and you can travel, on an unlimited basis, anywhere they fly in Western, Eastern, or the entirety of North America on Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays.

So if you live in Canada...