Five reasons why air travel is so expensive right now

[ficuswhisperer]

@frauenfelder

1. Airlines reduced their fleets during pandemic lockdowns and are “cautious about bringing back all their idled jets.”

2. Jet fuel has gotten a lot more expensive. “Spot jet fuel prices in New York have soared more than 80% this year,” and the airlines are passing along the extra cost to their passengers.

They found they can pack more people into fewer flights, and fuller flights use more fuel

3. People are willing to shell out extra money for the high-priced tickets. “Some consumers are tapping dormant holiday budgets and upgrading to more expensive aircraft cabins for leisure trips.”

And they make planes more uncomfortable making it easier to justify spending extra for slightly less shitty economy seats.

4. Airlines fired “hundreds of thousands of pilots, flight attendants, ground handlers and other aviation workers” during the pandemic and now they are having a hard time re-staffing.

5. After losing $200 billion during the pandemic, the airlines are eager to “repair balance sheets” by jacking up prices.

Didn’t they get tens of billions of dollars in stimulus money? Where did it all go? And of course they are having a hard time re-hiring. Who wants to go back to the company that fired them unnecessarily?