The Pump and Dump scheme.

 Good Morning to the Internet, the worlds greatest invention of the 20th century.

This morning when trawling through the news, I saw several articles of mild interest, among these, the Last whalejet, more 777 retirements, a schnoze gear collapse and a lost toy on an airplane. Great, great news.

What didn't make the news was more rambling by STC of EK about his new Econoplus seating. What is the deal with econoplus anyway, I just don't get it? Pay more and get more.

Airlines, all of them are very stingy self centered businesses. Costs matter more than everything else, whilst this is all a given, the fact is that actually the Airline could not care about the levels of service, and its all vainly superficial even from a safety standpoint. You see, the industry as a whole, before this pathetic virus, was headed into its own quagmire. Their obsessions with standards and technology is just another dopamine rush too add to the coffee that they already ingested, and when I say standards, I really mean 'how to water them down'. This is not unusual for any type of industry, in fact its rather expected.

Airlines have done some really nasty things to their pax, some undeservedly, but others quite involuntarily. Those internet sagas with guitars and pax being bullied on board etc etc, is just icing for the real crimes committed to them in economy class. Those narrow shoddy seats and uncomfortable seat pitches is just more devolution of the great invention that is the modern passenger airplane.

This is what the industry has become. An undisguised, naked attempt at profiteering or rather that was what it was headed into.

Comfort is irrelevant, because it is expensive to provide it and the provider of such a comfort is indeed ill advised, except of course for a nominal fee. As a pax you pay up and shut up. Every Airline in the world operates with such vaguely similar set of rules governing their operations.

Yes Airlines are a horrible and nasty bunch, But they are not the real villains, even BCA, whose own apathy for its creations can be forgiven for its treachery.

In the 1970s economy class opened the world to more travel, its basis was cheap tickets and available seats. The cheap price of tickets did a lot to offer a means getting people across the planet in a matter of hours. This revolution in travel, made for a better understanding of who we are as the inhabitants of this puny rock. BCA made the right move, it creation enabled this and subsequently the market followed. Everyone knows this story, its the storybook playtime again.

Fast forward to today, the economy class is 'better' but better in what terms? It is easy to ramble on about comfort and setting and food, but really that is not where the issue lies. The issue is of course the ticket price. What service do you get for your ticket is less relevant than the price of the ticket itself and why is this so?

It is because of inflation.

The ticket price of yesteryear may have had a higher residual value than today no thanks to all the cost cutting and 'economies' but really the lower ticket price of today isn't what it appears to be because the numbers don't indicate this. And I really mean numbers here. In 1970, 75 dollars would be an equivalent value of what amount today? It matters not what that number is because it is certainly bigger than the integer value of 75.

Most people do not factor this into their thinking. 75 is certainly smaller than 76 and any number above that indicates a price that is more expensive, or at least that what it it appears. Factor in inflation, and the residual value may even be less than the numerical value only that you never see this, because your not looking for it. So here is the real villain, naked and unmasked.

Airlines are dumping quadjets to meet emissions targets and cutting costs to head off inflation. They are just trying to survive, because inflation does not stop. The real crooks are the Governments that won't do anything to stifle inflation because its damaging effects inflates costs for everyone, but realistically, even they can do little to stop its effects.

As for BCA, what is the point of investing new technologies and economies of scale to your platform, when all the benefits you could give to it are just wiped out by inflation and its ill effects. And who is going to believe them, especially when standing in front of their customer during a presentation? The end of the era of mass travel might just be around the corner, because if everything is equally as inflated all over, there would be no point to go to somewhere else to just get just more of the same.