• RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    “Airlines should compete with one another to secure passengers’ business—not to see who can charge the most in surprise fees,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

    That makes sense, until you see airlines pulling out huge profits then using our subsidies to operate while whining air travel is not a good business

    • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Which airline is making huge profit? I can’t find even one that isn’t breaking even ± 1 or 2 percent.

      AA is the biggest, but makes no profit. Delta makes a small profit compared to their revenue.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        7 months ago

        either clever misinformation or really bad misunderstanding here. “profit compared to revenue” is not a useful metric of profitability and is quite misleading.

        the costs associated with running an airline are incredibly high, mostly because of jet fuel. so of course, airlines are going to be the industry with some of the smallest profit margins.

        and airlines are currently in a recovery period from covid, so their profits are lower than pre-pandemic numbers.

        none of this excuses the cost cutting, stock buybacks, and other exploitative behaviors of airlines. 1-2% of billions of dollars is still a fuck ton of money.