It’s true investing in the airline industry has been a good way to lose money for a long time.
But citing early post pandemic years to make that point feels misleading.
It’s like saying someone drives badly and instead of pointing to their speeding tickets, it’s like pointing out their car is in the shop with body damage… from a falling tree branch.
All travel was shut down for a while and when it opened up business travel was nonexistent. It’s still down and expected to never return to prepandemic. It’s amazing they made any profit in 2023.
Yes, airlines are not highly profitable but pandemic years are a terrible example due to being a weird black swan event.
There are a ton of executives too, which might be an issue.
As for the workers (including pilots), the should abolutely get paid. I'm just pointing out that "profits" does not show the big picture.
Companies have a duty to their employees & customers; as well as their owners (shareholders). Low profit is heralded when it's Amazon, reinvesting in the company. Airlines are also investing back in the company.
Profit margin does show the picture for how profitable a business is. Employees’ pay, including executive, is irrelevant. They are still employees.
Unless you are claiming malfeasance and that shareholders are being fleeced.
An entire industry with low single digit profit margins amongst multiple of competitors indicates a very optimized business. It means the only way you can reduce prices for customers is to come up with a novel way to execute the business, such as new technology.
Profit margin at businesses that have high barriers to entry and low costs to scale are much higher. See software, real estate, pharmaceuticals, finance, etc. And again, the executive pay is irrelevant since publicly listed businesses have shareholders paying attention to that kind of waste (for the most part).
It’s true investing in the airline industry has been a good way to lose money for a long time.
But citing early post pandemic years to make that point feels misleading.
It’s like saying someone drives badly and instead of pointing to their speeding tickets, it’s like pointing out their car is in the shop with body damage… from a falling tree branch.
All travel was shut down for a while and when it opened up business travel was nonexistent. It’s still down and expected to never return to prepandemic. It’s amazing they made any profit in 2023.
Yes, airlines are not highly profitable but pandemic years are a terrible example due to being a weird black swan event.