If you think the airline industry is fully deregulated, you need to check out the amount of government financial support it's received in the few years. Tickets are cheaper because American tax dollars are subsidizing the industry. If I remember this correctly, no major airline has made a profit since the industry was deregulated.
Southwest is a major airline and they have made gobs of money. No industry that sells anything to the American consumer is fully deregulated. The FAA is a regulatory body, for example, and airports are mostly owned & operated by quasi-governmental agencies. But more choices, more non-stop service, lower prices, and the hub-and-spoke system of air travel is a direct result of forcing airlines to give up exclusivity agreements with certain airports.
You don't remember this correctly. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=AMR&annual http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=dal&annual and then Southwest who have stayed profitable even after 9-11: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=luv&annual
Southwest is the exception. Mainly because they were the first to operate off the quick-and-easy-flying business model, rather than the flying-as-luxury business model.
I meant over their full history, not specific years. Southwest is an exception, but also not traditionally one of the major airlines. It and Jetblue are potentially showing the changes that need to be made in the market.
Southwest, Jet Blue, Air Tran, etc are all making assloads of money. Delta, American, United, USAir are not. What does that tell you?
Re: Re: Degulation helps us all We all recently paid $15 billion for airline service and it still sucks.
They don't use the traditional Hub and spoke system, which was created to increase the number of city pairs and focus equipment in one general area. That said, Southwest flys what is called point to point, bypassing a hub. How can they do that? They eliminate non-profit making routes. Well, basicly, they have had great leadership since day one thanks to Herb and all his friends who believed in that fun and family environment. I read about his secretary a while back. She is now a millionare for being with the team from day one. She wakes up every morning at 4am to swim, chain smokes and goes to work. They are practical by using the smaller airports near or in the big cities, avoiding the traffic at those hubs, too. Cheaper rent, too. No travel agent can sell a Southwest flight. Commonanity is the term used to decribe their exclusive use of the Boeing 737. They carry parts for one aircraft, their mechanics know and work one type and their flight crews know and don't need recurrent training for all the types of aircraft in their fleet because they have only one type. All that saves money and you'd better believe that Boeing makes them a deal, too. Plus, they are not wasting time with seating charts and dinners. To think, their original business model was drawn up on a coctail napkin over 30 years ago.