Chocks Away,
you said above
It's also sad how the equation has been stuffed up.
It takes 4 key ingredients to run an airline:
1) Airframes
2) Crew to operate ( PILOTS& F/As)
3) Fuel to go
4) Pax
I think you have some of that arse about face. Pax (no.4) should in fact be No.1. They, after all, pay the dosh to cover the cost of the other three. Having said that, Freight will do just as well ( or perhaps even better)
We forget something in all this discussion. Our industry is driven by the number of people who will pay to travel, and how much they will pay to travel. Everything derives from that. Whether we, as a profession, like it or not, significantly more people want to fly these days because they can do so by paying significantly less. And while we, in our noble profession, with our finely honed skills, might feel that we are unloved and underpaid, bear in mind that there are significantly more pilots in employment these days then ther ever were before. And ultimately it is the PASSENGER who decides how much you will be paid, by deciding how much your services are worth to him in his ticket price.
The profit margin of a "successful" airline is in the order of 3% of revenue. Go figure