Fewer people flew last quarter. Airlines shrugged.
Fares jumped on fuel costs. Passengers paid anyway. Executives call this "resilient demand." You'd call it a hostage situation with pretzels.
Think about the business model. Sell fewer seats. Charge more for each one. Burn the same jet fuel. Somehow this counts as winning. It's like a bakery bragging that nobody buys bread anymore, but the two guys who do are crying so beautifully.
The travelers are "mostly swallowing higher fares." Swallowing. Not accepting. Not understanding. Swallowing, like a pill the size of a Cessna.
Retail traders will read this and buy airline stocks. They will say things like "pricing power." They will say it at Thanksgiving, to a cousin who drove eleven hours because flying cost more than his truck.
The empty seats are the best part. Somewhere on a Tuesday flight to Cleveland, row 14 sits vacant. Nobody mourns it. The airline has already billed row 15 for its absence.
Technical analysis offers no comment. A chart of passenger counts and a chart of fares form an X. Traders love an X. It means nothing, but it looks like a pirate map to a place where you get charged for the map.
Fuel prices will fall eventually. Fares will not. Fares have never once fallen out of a sky they owned.
The airlines aren't worried because you've already shown them what you'll pay. You'll pay it again, standing, in a middle seat, thanking them for the cranberry juice.
Photo by Octav Cado on Unsplash
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