Flying commercial aircraft has never been profitable. We probably only need one airline (one domestic airline at any rate). But most of all, airline prices are vastly too low. Want to fly round-trip New York to DC? Fork over $200.00. Going from California to New York round-trip? That'll be $2,100.00. That's IF we pay the same fares we paid in 1964. See here for example: http://www.jaunted.c...es+Ticket+in+1964

Obviously, the vast majority of Americans won't be flying if we do that. But, (with apologies to Western Airlines) that is the only way to run an airline. The reason the airlines are always facing difficulty is that no one is paying their fair share to fly. We all want to go see Mickey Mouse in Florida for $200.00 per round-trip ticket no matter where we're flying from. It's not possible to do that without MASSIVE amounts of money flying into the airline from somebody. So, either jack your tax rates up and nationalize the industry, or be prepared to pay the piper if you want to continue flying.

I was a tot, but I flew in the 1960's and early 70's quite often - even transatlantic in 1969. Back then, people dressed up to go to the airport and we could only ever afford the vastly cheaper red-eye flights out of LAX (I think I was 15 before I even knew that commercial airlines flew during daylight hours). You're quite right, prices were fixed, as were gate times, schedules, etc. I remember my aunts and uncles talking about which airline they preferred and it was always a discussion of how good the food was and if they'd ever lost a bag. In those days, the only thing an airline could compete against another airline with was level of service. Those days are gone. The airlines are in a losing proposition. They've cut everything they can possibly cut - service, free bags, free champagne (yes even for coach), meals, flight crew pensions, pay and perks, mechanics, deep cycles to China, new aircraft orders, you name it - they've slashed it. It's amazing to me that anyone wants to be in that business anymore.