USAirways has jumped the shark

[Flywrite]

Movie theaters, hotel rooms, and theme parks don't keep you in a small, pressurized metal tube in 5-10% humidity...

They also dont take you across the continent.

 

[BoilerUP]

They also dont take you across the continent.

Indeed...but seriously, how expensive is water?

US Airways could save enough $$$ in fuel to provide a beverage for every passenger simply by lighting a fire under the lazy-ass PHL rampers one day a month...

We're not talking olives in salads here, we're talking dehydration...and you KNOW it won't take long before a passenger starts asking if the flight crew is getting charged for their Diet Coke or cup of coffee...

 

[Networ-King]

Where have you guys been? Under a rock.... this guy copied SWA overseas and then started down this new path years ago.....

Its the wave of the future..... wave of the future.....wave of the fu(king future..... God save us all......

A radical fix for airlines: Make flying free
Ireland's Ryanair gives away tickets to earn big profits from other aspects of the travel experience.

By Matthew Maier, Business 2.0 Magazine staff writer
March 31, 2006: 11:31 AM EST

(Business 2.0 Magazine) - Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive of Ireland's Ryanair (Research), Europe's most profitable airline, wants to make air travel free. Not free as in free from regulation, but free as in zero cost. By the end of the decade, he promises, "more than half of our passengers will fly free."
The remarkable thing is, few analysts think his prediction is far-fetched: Ryanair already offers free fares to a quarter of its customers.
By a wide margin

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Even without free flights, Ryanair has become one of Europe's most popular carriers. Last year it flew 35 million passengers to more than 100 European destinations, while its customers paid an average fare of just $53. The airline enjoyed revenues of $1.7 billion, up 20 percent over 2004, at a time when most competitors were stuck in a holding pattern.
Even more impressive, Ryanair's $368 million in net earnings gave the airline an industry-leading 22 percent net profit margin. (By comparison, Southwest Airlines's (Research) net margin was 7.2 percent.) "Ryanair has the strongest financials in the European airline industry," says James Parker, an equity analyst with Raymond James.
The secret? Ryanair's austere cost structure almost makes Southwest look profligate. In addition, the Irish airline puts a price on virtually everything except tickets, from baggage check-in to seat-back advertising space. As a result, last year Ryanair collected $265 million--15.6 percent of overall revenues--from sources other than ticket sales.
"We weren't the first to figure this out," O'Leary says. "But we do it better than everybody else."
The similarities to the Southwest model are hardly coincidental. In 1991, when Ryanair was just another struggling European regional carrier, O'Leary went to Dallas to meet Southwest executives and look for lessons he could take back to Ireland. The visit prompted a wholesale reconsideration of how the airline did business.
Following Southwest's lead, Ryanair embraced a single type of aircraft--the venerable Boeing (Research) 737. Likewise, it focused on smaller, secondary airports and began to offer open (unassigned) passenger seating.

 

[SpauldingSmails]

You will once again seek bankruptcy protection, only this time no one will finance you, so you will be left with liquidation.

I dunno about that, Airways has proven to be the turd that won't flush.

 

[Redmeat]

I dunno about that, Airways has proven to be the turd that won't flush.

:laugh:

 

[gutshotdraw]

Since I get paid to airline to and from the jet, I have a serious question:

If I'm a little late getting down the jetway with my standard crew rollaboard and my "small personal item" and the unwashed hordes have already PACKED the overheads with their bodybags and steamer trunks, will the flight attendant or gate agent be standing there with a credit card machine to charge me $15 when they demand I check my rollaboard?

The people I really feel for here are the flight attendants. Pay slashed, pensions gone, schedules screwed, and now their managements force them to deal with gigando carry-ons, severely slowed boardings while the gate agents yell at them, and passengers whining even more about how much their seat cost and that they have to pay for their Diet Coke.

Note to airline managements: JUST RAISE THE FARES $20 ACROSS THE BOARD.

 

[Correcting]

Some of these examples you guys posted are ludicrous.

Movie theaters? Hotels? Come on now, you're not even comparing similar things.

On an airline, I'm locked in a tube for however long with no alternatives. I almost feel like I'm a ... uh...prisoner.

Eureka There's your example. Flying on an airline is like being in prison. Prisoners don't get charged for food, drinks, tv, etc. It's all included in the price of their stay.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Soda tastes better when you pay more for it.

 

[elag777]

Some of these examples you guys posted are ludicrous.

Movie theaters? Hotels? Come on now, you're not even comparing similar things.

On an airline, I'm locked in a tube for however long with no alternatives. I almost feel like I'm a ... uh...prisoner.

Eureka There's your example. Flying on an airline is like being in prison. Prisoners don't get charged for food, drinks, tv, etc. It's all included in the price of their stay.

Start driving! then you can stop at The "Flying J" for your Soda! BTW gas is $4.15 plus a gallon!:nuts:

 

[Bringupthebird]

It was nice knowing you
God help you if Southwest moves into CLT.

Southwest will OWN LAS after this summer. And they won't give it back. I would expect that they will take all of the A and B gates. US will be lucky to beg for a handful out in the south 40. When good times return US will be sitting there with their mouths hanging open watching the cash roll by.

Oops, forgot, they have Philly - well oiled machine that it is.