eli5: How are airline companies profit margins so thin?

Question

Theres like 5 companies in the US that handle ALL the flights. How do they still have thin profit margins despite being the only options?

Edit: spelling

In: 72

Answer 1

To add to others comments, the FAA causes parts to be extremely expensive for aircraft. The main reason is safety but it does increase the cost of new aircraft and cost per hour dramatically. In a perfect world where planes would never have issues or crash air travel could be drastically cheaper.