[So why even have a first class? Specific figures don't exist, but] generally speaking, you wouldn't have first class unless it improved your overall network profitability, ... While it is more expensive to provide first-class service, the idea of having it is to cater to the business traveler, differentiate the cabin and charge a premium. The longer the trip, the more the consumer cares about the food, seat comfort and additional options. |
[The salt in the wounds for the industry: Short-haul flights tend to command higher fares.] There's a lot of business travel in short haul, ... That certainly hurt us. |
Although airlines have recently passed through a few price increases, they pale in comparison to the magnitude of the sustained rise in jet fuel prices. |
By then, we'd better have this problem rectified or we'll have a serious problem, |
Clearly the more we get the sooner the better. |
Every time the trust fund is going down, they say we're going to have to come to the airlines for more revenue. I say you don't have a revenue problem, you have a cost problem. |
Everything that relates to cash matters now. It would have been helpful to have the payroll taxes deferred, but this will go part of the way. |
Fuel prices are the difference between record profitability (for some airlines) and a year of crappy losses. |
I still see the economy as absolute the No. 1 factor, (even with) as many other factors as there are nowadays, |
I will be very surprised if there is not a proposal. |
If we were passing these [higher fuel costs] through, we'd be reporting profits . . . and we're not. |
In terms of the broad picture, it looks like there will be new choices and more seats going internationally versus last year. But things will be a little bit tighter domestically. |
International capacity is up 5 percent, year over year. |
It's a dagger in an open wound. |
It's sort of a one-stop shopping experience, and the idea is to make the traveler feel like he or she is truly traveling on one airline. |