And yet airlines lost money for most of the past decade. So these 3 billion passengers aren’t paying them that much. (And I don’t think it just doesn’t occur to airlines to raise prices; presumably they wouldn’t get as many passengers if they did.) Even more recently, it looks like the average net profit per passenger (average, not marginal) is of the order of $5.
Which divided by 3 billion would be $5.77/passenger in 2010, $2.50/passenger in 2011, $2.03/passenger in 2012, $3.53/passenger in 2013, and $6/passenger in 2014. What did you think I meant by “of the order of $5”?
Yes, we agree on the numbers, we’re just throwing connotations at each other :-)
$5 is a small number so you’re pointing to this. $somebillions is a large number and I’m pointing to that.
I am still pretty sure commercial aviation is perfectly viable economically, it’s just that certain peculiarities of the business make it hard to make lots of money in it. However it’s not going anywhere and, say, doubling the fuel prices will not make it go away either.
And yet airlines lost money for most of the past decade. So these 3 billion passengers aren’t paying them that much. (And I don’t think it just doesn’t occur to airlines to raise prices; presumably they wouldn’t get as many passengers if they did.) Even more recently, it looks like the average net profit per passenger (average, not marginal) is of the order of $5.
From the link in the parent post, about $600 billion.
Peanuts, I know.
From the link in the parent post, net profit for the last five years:
2010: $17.3 billion
2011: $7.5 billion
2012: $6.1 billion
2013 (est): $10.6 billion
2014 (fcast): $18.0 billion
Which divided by 3 billion would be $5.77/passenger in 2010, $2.50/passenger in 2011, $2.03/passenger in 2012, $3.53/passenger in 2013, and $6/passenger in 2014. What did you think I meant by “of the order of $5”?
Yes, we agree on the numbers, we’re just throwing connotations at each other :-)
$5 is a small number so you’re pointing to this. $somebillions is a large number and I’m pointing to that.
I am still pretty sure commercial aviation is perfectly viable economically, it’s just that certain peculiarities of the business make it hard to make lots of money in it. However it’s not going anywhere and, say, doubling the fuel prices will not make it go away either.
That has more to do with the fact that air travel is commoditized than the price of inputs.