American is already blaming the government if you read arpey’s rants.
Airlines with decent management that can read, write and think will HAVE to account for a scenario where the cost of fuel increases. Rising cost of fuel is not an unexpected event anymore and somebody as dumb as I am would have mentioned that even 4 years ago. Rising fuel prices affect all other airlines too. Then how come they are showing profits? Southwest, if I remember right was the first one to get into hedging business in fuel. International airlines copied this method and perfected it further.
Here are some dumb questions from a dumb renter about airline business:
(1) How is Southwest surviving by raising their ticket prices? Even I noticed that their fares are more expensive than a year ago.
(2) How is it that international carriers make money on the pacific routes and fill their seats while United and American go empty? How is it that these routes are considered lucrative by international airlines, but no so by US based carriers? They all pay for their fuel in open market, don’t they?
Maybe these asian airlines fill their planes because they provide “service”? A quick check shows that they are actually more expensive to fly pacific routes than either United or American.
