this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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Inequality has gotten so much worse that rich people don't even fly in the same planes as us anymore.
That's going to have perverse incentives on airplane safety too. They have no reason to update their laws if peasant airplane doors falling off becomes common.
I have a friend that is a sales manager for private planes. He said business exploded during the pandemic and then never slowed down. This despite flights being eye-wateringly expensive (like, 20k for one-way is a great deal, because you managed to book an empty leg.)
20k one way is expensive?
That's half a year's salary for a LOT of people, damn right it's expensive
A one way first class from Toronto to New York City is 1-3k
On the low end that’s only 20 people for a private flight, on the higher end it’s 6-7 for a whole plane
Not a lot. Several percent, maybe.
EDIT: not a lot of people is what I meant. Most earn much, much less.
I actually can't tell if you're being serious or not...
Are you..?
Average salary in my city is ~$60k. $20k for a flight is ludicrous.
For the people / businesses who book these flights.
Yeah, but the conversation is about people being bale to afford it at all? Of course people who can afford it... Can afford it? That number is under 1% of the population, so it really shouldn't be a thing.
The world is not just USA.
You're right, it's even worse economically in many places.
And better in others.
And yet there's no where that $20k USD is a reasonable amount
That makes you even more wrong as 20k USD is quite expensive.
That's what I've been stressing in the first place!
I live in Canada, so...
Doesn't have anything to do with $20k being absurd, but...
Perception has also become completely warped.
I was out with some guys last night and one of them was talking about a PJ for a golf trip. I didn't know what he was talking about so I kept quiet. I used to travel extensively for work, usually on the company plane so I've spent a good amount of time on planes all by myself with the pilots, so my Buddy who invited me to this outing started asking me questions about what it's like flying private and I figured out pj means private jet.
The guy talking about using a private jet is a fireman. I'm sure he makes a nice living but what fucking world do public service employees use or even think they should be using a private plane to go golfing? I don't even get the idea of flying somewhere specifically to go golfing, that seems like rich people shit, hiring a damn plane for it? How the hell did that even become a consideration?
Eta. I'm not shitting on public service employees. This guy probably makes more money than me and for sure has a better retirement plan LoL. I'm pointing out that this guy doesn't work in finance, real estate or an industry that you might more typically expect to be familiar and using private services along those lines.
We were looking at a family vacation for Christmas instead of all the different households just getting together at one of the houses. At between 12 and 16 people (depending on the company, destination, and package) it was less expensive to charter a jet than purchase individual tickets.
My trigger for chartering was 6 people flying nic pilots. After that, factoring in the cost of the salaries on board and hotels we typically needed flying commercial, it made sense to book our own plane.
This is a guy talking about was talking like he's going to book a G6 to take him and 3 buddies to South Carolina. Small difference in the value proposition there.
You think airlines don't make money on economy class? That's the vast majority of their income. Of course they're going to serve their largest customer base.
You would think that, but that’s not the case
This doesn't address the point. OP said Economy makes them the most money. Sure, Business class is most profitable per ft. But it's only 25% of the plane at best.
You didn’t read the article or look at the infographic did you? Assuming a full flight, business actually brings in 3x of the total revenue that economy does since it has a much higher $/sq-ft. Even with less people , its total is more.
You are quite right. The link just took me to the FAQ, I didn't see the entire infographic above it. Very interesting and you are right, Business Class is less than 15% of passenger numbers but they account for 70% of profits.
are you chatgpt?
Sorry, I must have confused you by using fully formed sentences, some of which included numbers.
There are considerable safety concerns regarding private jets, mostly down to the quality of the pilots. At the bigger airlines, pilots are unionized and have consistent schedules they work and routes and aircraft they fly. It’s reliable work and where most pilots (even military) end up.
Meanwhile private aviation needs to be flexible and easy to set up. Contrary to your comment this is the sector that you can usually expect to find more unscrupulous operations and pilots who are basically just Some Guy. Most of the near miss accidents lately have involved private planes (though that can often be attributed to problems in the ATC network).
As for the doors that’s more of a Boeing specific problem, they’ve made a lot of questionable business decisions in recent years and this is the fallout of that. Airbus planes don’t seem to have this problem, and customers seem to be making it clear that they would like their planes to work thank you very much.
Get on the 50 marine, we're coming into a hot LZ!!
They never have
No. I was on a plane with Mitt Romney while he was running for president. He flew with everyone else. The idea of private jets is absolutely us coming to needing to sell something better and private for the wealthy which means more waste and less attention, and wirse conditions.
Flights are becoming like taking the bus.