What are the key points to maintaining airline profitability & worker happiness?
I am curious as to what everyone knows / thinks are the key points to running a safe, profitable, happy airline or aircraft business in the commercial sector (I.e. not government funded air ambulances)
It seems that many airlines are in a race to the bottom for the cheapest possible ticket price. In many (most?) industries, rivals tend to find a happy medium and avoid starting price wars with their rivals because it ends up hurting both companies. They set prices which the market will bear and avoid discounting needlessly. This does not seem to be the case in large passenger operations.
How do successful, happy airlines do that keeps regular profits rolling in without pissing off their staff? Are there some specific sub-industries that bring in a lot more profit than others? What are they and why are they successful?