• explodicle@local106.com
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    10 months ago

    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.

    • TurtleJoe@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      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.)

      • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        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.

    • SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      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.

        • cerulean_blue@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          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.

          • ramble81@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            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.

            • cerulean_blue@lemmy.ml
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              10 months ago

              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.

    • Illegal_Prime@dmv.social
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      10 months ago

      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.

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        10 months ago

        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.