Denver International Airport(Where I always fly too..)
I don’t think that this is news to anyone, airports are a royal pain in the ass. At least I don’t have to pay for any of it, and getting frequent flier miles is nice. In the end I think I would rather stay and home and let them keep their miles.
How is this related to money you ask? Well it is a known fact airlines suck at making money. It is a huge investment to buy or lease an airplane, which uses very expensive very refined JP-5 otherwise known as jet fuel. They need lots of human capital to operate the airline efficiently, and most don’t even do that.
There are lots of reasons that airlines suck at making money, but if I had to pick one. I would say its the unions. Unions in the post industrial revolution have not been kind to business. A unions goal is to drive the price of labor up as much as possible, the consequences be damned! Unions insure artificially high wages, so airlines are forced to pay their workers more then the market would dictate under normal circumstances.
The only airlines that can make money are the young ones that are not yet controlled by their unions. The airline industry is following a path to destruction with its pension promises to its employees. Its only a matter of time until it posts billion dollar loss like another union controlled industry: The American Auto Industry
My question is this: Why is it cheaper to make a connection (thus requiring double the staff, double the fuel, etc…) than to just fly directly from one place to another?
It’s not.
The best way to make money as an airline is to keep the plane in the air as much as possible. They love to fly between NY and LA six times in a day with a full load every time. Even then profit margins can be really thin, they make even less(or post a loss) off of the conneting flights that are in less demand.