Ignition Overide. The reason that Euro airlines make money are several:
1. Much better quality of management
2. They charge MORE than cost for their tickets (...gee, there's an idea...why didn't we think of that!).
3. MUCH better product (look at BA's business class product...brilliant)
4. MUCH better standard of service. No 'grimy grannies' and (usually) perky and friendly service (my last AA flight had a flight attendant telling me off for having the nerve to ask for a bottle of water!!).
5. Cross-pollination of management (an Australian heading BA for example, now an Irishman....see how that goes.) US airlines can't see beyond their own shores for management personnel
I could go on...but why bother. The US airline industry is doomed. The only survivors will be airlines like SW and JB. The legacy carriers have ruined themselves, and the industry is changing so fast they can't possibly adapt in time. Incidentally, the Euro carriers have survived and prospered since 2001 without destroying their employees salaries and pensions. The only thing that will save the US carriers is if they are allowed to be bought out and managed by foreigners. It's ironic that it is the unions that oppose this, considering it's their only hope of long-term survival. You Yanks don't always have the best way of doing things...and you certainly don't know your ars*s from a hole in the ground when it comes to how to run airlines. Will be interesting to see how quickly United goes back into BK again....
ps. the Euro airlines are incensed by the US carriers diverting their capacity onto the Atlantic. They don't pay their bills (unlike the Euro carriers), then they artifically lower the yield on the Atlantic. Great idea, screw up their own market, then try and do the same to the European carriers. I do wonder why the Yanks are not exactly the flavour of the month at the mo....
