[sokoloff]

Thanks for the links. I read through them and agree that competition isn't a binary thing. Those articles read to me more like "the airline business is a shitty business to be in because it's too competitive" rather than "the airline business is a great business to own because it's not very competitive"

This quote seemed to summarize my point of view overall:

> Airlines in North America posted a profit of $22.40 per passenger last year; in Europe the figure was $7.84.

$22.40 per pax looks to be about a 6% margin (avg US domestic RT fare of $354 in 2017). 6% is not quite the bloody competition of grocers (sub 2%), but it's a pretty damned slim profit margin for such a capital and labor intensive business and not anyplace I'd want to put my investment (of time or money) to seek profit.

It wouldn't surprise me if the European carriers had a similar profit margin on their lower priced tickets. I couldn't readily conjure up an estimate of average RT intra-Europe airfares on Google.