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Comment by pmart123 | Hacker News Reader

It did once he realized airlines are now offering additive items. When it was just a butt in a seat, airlines were crap businesses due to the capital costs, regulations, and fuel prices. With shale, it looks like the US won't have a foreign oil dependency for a long time. Meanwhile, airlines can charge you $12 for wifi, $30 for extra legroom, etc. which completely changes the economics of flying.

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Notably, Southwest doesn't currently charge for checked bags, which is probably the biggest piece of secondary revenue for other airlines.

I doubt WiFi makes money for any airline. It's either satellite, which costs them a ton, or LTE, where they get a paltry revenue share. I think WiFi is more of a customer satisfaction/expectation thing.

Eh, most airlines going for satellite WiFi aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts - they're doing it because the unit economics make sense. There are exceptions like JetBlue who offer it for "free" though.

If you do the math on the high capital costs to install and FAA certify the satellite equipment, then the ongoing transponder costs, then the low conversion rate, and finally the fuel costs due to the protruding bubble for the antenna...they are lucky if it breaks even.

They seriously need to figure out how to fold WiFi in as an option in the ticketing process. It's annoying to have to fumble around with a credit card on the plane, typing in my address and billing information (which they obviously already have).

Make it easy to purchase WiFi access and just about everyone will click that box. Once on the plane, just have the customer scan their boarding pass or something to enable the service. Laptop users could be accommodated by entering the usual 6-character confirmation code that they already use for everything else.

I think they do it because customers have shown a willingness to choose flights based on which has wifi (and they now show up in aggregators like Kayak and Hipmunk). Previously, price and schedule were basically the only differentiators that actually affected peoples' purchasing decisions. When it means selling a ticket vs. not selling a ticket, it's much easier to make the case for the capital costs.

Southwest was able to offer such a service because of their long term contracts on oil.

Southwest has been getting crushed on their fuel hedges for almost the last decade. That’s certainly not why.

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