What I want to talk about today is airlines. I’m a longtime airline bull, going all the way back to 2012-2013—long before it was fashionable.
I liked airlines because everyone hated them. Especially Warren Buffett, who once said that someone should have shot Orville and Wilbur out of the sky. He now owns the stocks.
A pilot wrote a great article in The New York Times saying that the conventional wisdom about airlines (which is that they suck) is all wrong.
People like to talk about the golden age of flying, with three-course meals, plenty of room to stretch out, people wearing ties, the piano bar in 747s… all that jazz.
But there was no golden age of flying. In fact, the golden age of flying is now.
Flying today is:
- Massively cheaper—prices are down over 50% in real terms.
- Way more convenient—there are flights pretty much wherever you want to go.
- Safer—there hasn’t been a crash by a major airline in the US in 15 years.
- Greener—planes were louder, less fuel-efficient, and more polluting.
- Smoke-free—people used to smoke! Today, that would be intolerable.
- Fun—there’s enough entertainment, with in-flight wifi, unlimited movies, etc.
- Still pretty roomy—there’s a little less space than there used to be, but not as bad as people think.
This is yet another example of people being habitually sullen and taking things for granted. Flying is pretty awesome. As Louis C.K. said: “You’re in the sky…in a chair!â€
But didn’t United Airlines just throttle a guy and drag him off the plane?
Didn’t a flight attendant from another airline try to start a fight with a passenger?
Didn’t Spirit Airlines customers start a riot at the ticketing desk in Fort Lauderdale?
There is a phenomenon in social psychology—I don’t know if there is a name for it1—but when you see something in the news, like a passenger being mistreated, chances are you going to see that over and over again for months, until the news people get bored and move on to something else.
