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Starting an Airline

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Re: Starting an Airline

#221

Post by lotyrin »

goblin89 wrote: post #131
ChuckMcM wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, but do you enslave entire worlds in StarCraft 2? I've found that enterprise is like real time strategy games a little bit, there are a lot of things all at the same time that have to be working well for you to be successful, but if you can put your head in the frame of mind that its just a game (or game like) then you can set aside a big chunk of the tension of doing it for real. The Flying Wallendas (high wire…

Anecdotally, I acquire such a frame of mind after a session of Civilization IV (just tried recently, never played strategy video games before). Everything looks like time or resource investment with a goal, and I feel a bit detached emotionally when making choices. I guess I should be worried that this feels unusual :)

Maybe growing up playing those kinds of games is why I now feel like everyone is nuts with the way they make decisions.

Re: Starting an Airline

#222

Post by cloudwalking »

brightsize wrote: post #203
jellicle wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things I learned from Hacker News: both high and low salaries are all the fault of dastardly "unions". (Actually, the regional carriers that employ newbie pilots are non-unionized.)

Not just the unions. "Regulations" are at fault too. They're unnecessary and expensive. The number of airliners that fall out of the sky per year due to faulty design/construction/maintenance or due to under-trained/overworked/unfit pilots is something for "The Market" to decide, not the Gubbmint!

It is? Personally, I'll take the more expensive airline ticket if it means my airline's safety standards aren't weighed against profit margins.

Unfortunately "The Market" optimizes for profit, which is almost never in my (and the consumers') best interest.

Re: Starting an Airline

#223

Post by pieterhg »

cloudwalking wrote: post #222
brightsize wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just the unions. "Regulations" are at fault too. They're unnecessary and expensive. The number of airliners that fall out of the sky per year due to faulty design/construction/maintenance or due to under-trained/overworked/unfit pilots is something for "The Market" to decide, not the Gubbmint!

It is? Personally, I'll take the more expensive airline ticket if it means my airline's safety standards aren't weighed against profit margins. Unfortunately "The Market" optimizes for profit, which is almost never in my (and the consumers') best interest.

I think you missed the

Re: Starting an Airline

#224

Post by rivo »

My co-founder and I have a combined 20+ years of experience in the airline software industry. When we set out to start our own business, it was clear that we were not going to sell to airlines. Too many legacy systems, too much historically grown cruft, needless complexity, too many individual requirements but no money to pay for it. Plus they're distributed all over the world so selling to them is very costly. It's a shame because we would have had a big head start in terms of domain knowledge.

Re: Starting an Airline

#225

Post by cloudwalking »

pieterhg wrote: post #223
cloudwalking wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is? Personally, I'll take the more expensive airline ticket if it means my airline's safety standards aren't weighed against profit margins. Unfortunately "The Market" optimizes for profit, which is almost never in my (and the consumers') best interest.

I think you missed the

I think you're right :|

Re: Starting an Airline

#226

Post by desas »

FireBeyond wrote: post #211
joonix wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a government subsidy just like any other. It's a huge one, and many carriers are complaining about it. They argue Emirates should be charged extra fees for their US service because of unfair competition. I think that argument has merit given US carriers have to pay market price plus taxes on their jet fuel. Emirates gets huge subsidies because its a goal of Dubai to become a world air hub. It certainly makes sen…

The US Government pays huge subsidies to US airlines that aren't extended to foreign airlines. It also has rules in place that do not allow foreign airlines to fly domestic routes in the US. Perhaps the UAE(/European/applicable foreign) governments should start charging US carriers an extra fee to combat the subsidies when they land abroad. I'm sure no-one would complain about that or attempt to use the US government…

As a current example, the EU decided that airlines operating in Europe would have to pay a carbon tax, to be spent on fighting climate change. The US government made it illegal for american airlines to pay that tax. It's currently suspended by the EU.

Re: Starting an Airline

#227

Post by desas »

joonix wrote: post #124
twistedpair wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. The real winner is Emirates. They refuel when at the hub in the UAE where they get fuel for next to nothing. That is awesome given fuel is the driving cost of most airlines. When Boeing invents a flying fuel barge, expect them to dominate US routes.

It's a government subsidy just like any other. It's a huge one, and many carriers are complaining about it. They argue Emirates should be charged extra fees for their US service because of unfair competition. I think that argument has merit given US carriers have to pay market price plus taxes on their jet fuel. Emirates gets huge subsidies because its a goal of Dubai to become a world air hub. It certainly makes sen…

International air travel is tax free world wide as agreed in the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.

Re: Starting an Airline

#228

Post by rayiner »

fleitz wrote: post #207
aj12345 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deposits have nothing to do with capital. If you have 1B in assets and 12B in liabilities you are insolvent.

There's one of two possibilities, either I'm wrong and capital requirements don't work like that, or every bank in the world is insolvent. Given Quantitative easing 1,2,3,etc which do you think is true? You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'…

So from a bank's perspective, a loan is an asset and a deposit is a liability.

Say someone deposits $100 cash (federal reserve notes) into Bank A. Let's say the reserve ratio is 20%. It takes $80 and loans it to someone, who deposits in the same bank. It then takes $64 of that and loans it to someone who deposits in the same bank. It then takes $51 of that and loans it to someone who takes out cash and holds it.

The bank has the following assets: $20 + $16 + $13 in reserve, plus loans of $80 + $64 + $51 = $244.

It has the following liabilities: $100 + $80 + $64 = $244.

Now, if those loans don't get repaid, the bank might not remain solvent, but that has nothing to do with fractional reserve banking. Any entity that is solvent on the books can be rendered insolvent by loans going bad.

Re: Starting an Airline

#229

Post by mercer »

FireBeyond wrote: post #205
Shenglong wrote: post #142

Here's an investment banker joke I've been hearing oddly often recently: "How do you get a million dollars?" -> "Invest a billion dollars in the airline industry". On a more serious note: there's a lot of talk on this page about the finance and logistics of starting a company like this - but I think the human factor is also worth mentioning. I fly a moderate amount, and whenever I have an hour or so to spare on a lay…

Without hijacking the subject / topic, this is one of my pet peeves... many EMTs and paramedics, even unionized, are absolutely responsible for lives, directly, as a job description. Yet you will find that the national average salary for an EMT is $19,000. That's $3,000 less than the person that makes your coffee at Starbucks... Paramedics, who do even more, including being entrusted with cardiac drugs, narcotics, an…

This reminds me of the 'Bullshit Jobs' article by David Graeber. While I don't know how much I agree with the article, it does touch on your pet peeve:

> Yet it is the peculiar genius of our society that its rulers have figured out a way, as in the case of the fish-fryers, to ensure that rage is directed precisely against those who actually do get to do meaningful work. For instance: in our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it.

source: http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

Re: Starting an Airline

#230

Post by kfk »

bulte-rs wrote: post #181
corford wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work in the aviation industry and had lots of similar conversations with pilots. After a while I began to realise it's essentially just like every other industry: those the flew for well run airlines tended to be happy and those that didn't weren't. P.S. Professional pilots are known to whinge quite a lot so you might want to take what he said with a little pinch of salt... try lurking on www.pprune.org for…

Sure. There's a lot of whining going on. But aspiring pilots (at least in the EU) basically don't stand a chance. Most Ab-initio's (as they're supposedly called) have student loans in the range of 130-170k and - if they're lucky - en up flying for a low cost carrier. They get paid per SBH (Scheduled block hour) which lands them - during the first few years, on average - a gross income of €4000. Since most of these pi…

This says a lot about Europe actually. 4000 Euro should, if taxed decently, be a nice salary (2600 Euro net at 35% taxes). However, in many countries that salary brings your income tax way up (usually between 40 and 50 %). Plus, you are obliged to pay for a pension you will never see (I challenge anybody believing that in 40 years from now European States will be able to pay decent pension).

Finally, most of the European States have funny regulations about building new house, so most of the cities are crowded and rents are way too expensive.

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