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Looking at the numbers, for example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines#Business_trend...

United had their highest revenue in 2024, and their profit margin was... 5.5%. Would reducing your ticket price by 5.5% make any difference?

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also, don’t forget (well known fact) that passengers paying for premium economy and business class seats are the most profitable for the airlines - by far. Aside from profits from credit card rewards programs.

so the profit margin on economy tickets is likely even smaller than 5.5%!

I have no doubt that if they could fill the plane with 200 business class travelers they would. But that group simply isn't big enough outside of routes to New York or Shanghai.

The 747 became the queen of the skies because it carried 400 tourists to Málaga, Okinawa and Ft Lauderdale.

100%. just wanted to highlight how razor-thin those margins really are, especially when looking at economy seats alone. For your average traveler, there’s really not much left to “squeeze” to reduce the price of air travel.

i suppose you could reduce safety standards, but that’s undesirable in its own right.

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