Airline Prices – why is it so expensive within the U.S. vs. so cheap Within Europe

Question

Why is it so expensive to fly anywhere within the U.S. but so much cheaper to fly within and between European counties?

In: Economics

Answer 1

Labor costs, generally speaking. Airline labor is significantly more expensive in the US than Europe or even Canada.

Before everyone gets their pitchforks and blames the greedy executives and shareholders, US airlines (with the exception of Delta) lost hundreds of million in Q12024. Airlines had record revenues but their costs went up even more.

Either labor costs need to go down or airfares need to go up. Otherwise you’ll see further consolidation in the industry.