You ask the government for money? The seemingly simple equation is complicated by most airlines operating a hub-and-spoke network where pax are either coming from or going to other destinations. The equation for a given route for one flight per scheduled period (i.e. A day for most US airlines), is simple, but what happens if you have 5 flight= s a day? Airlines operate different size planes to maintain their schedules with variable capacity, but sometimes even a 19 seater EMB120 doesn=B9t cut it. It didn=B9t help that most US airline boses equate manliness with the number of new aluminum tubes in the sky and you get far too many airlines running far too many flights at a loss. There are of course exceptions to the rule. Matthew On 6/29/02 5:23 PM, "Greg Newbold" <pnewbold@san.rr.com> wrote: > I have a question. Airlines have fixed, or market driven, costs for > equipment,fuel, landing fees etc and if labor costs, the principal variab= le, > can't be reduced, what happens? >=20 > When there is little prospect of making money on given routes because of > high costs and low yield should management retrench? It apppears to make > little sense to keep flights in the air when the company has little chanc= e > of making a profit. The unwillingness of the passenger to foot the bill f= or > these flights should not be borne by the shareholders. Prudent management > would demand these flights be eliminated if costs and fares cannot be > balanced. >=20 > I solicit opinions. >=20 > Greg >=20