Don't forget about taxes and fees. When you look at the price of a domestic (US) ticket, it's surprising how much of this is taxes and fees that the airline is passing through and not directly profit.
Tip on pricing: 'Taxes and fees', etc., are BS. It's just a way of getting consumers to pay more (and to create political pressure to limit such things).
They are expenses, and like all expenses they are the business's problem, not yours. Somehow, people are conditioned to think that they should pay the airline's taxes (some of them) and 'fees' for them, and somehow customers mentally remove that from the bottom line price. If only they could get customers to believe they should cover other expenses, like income taxes, fuel (oh yeah, they did that), maintenance, and lunch the other day with the Boeing salesperson, they could itemize those too. And where are the discounts when the expenses are less than expected? When profits are high? Oh, suddenly that's their business, not mine.
The pro tip is this, for anything: Just look at the bottom line. Businesses can itemize things however they want, including discounts ('special for you today - 50% off!'), the price of item A can be marked up, the price of item B marked down, it's all meaningless.
Aircraft fuel is pretty much untaxed in most countries in the world.
Since a plane can easily fly from country to country, any country who taxed airline fuel would simply deter planes from visiting.
Probably the biggest climate move that could have happened at COP26 would have been a global agreement on $1/liter aircraft fuel tax. But it didn't happen.
The 'race to the bottom' argument against all taxes is mostly insignificant: First, airports, air traffic control, etc. have to be paid for somehow; taxes are how it's done. Second, taxes don't determine profits to that extent. Will an airline discontinue service to the EU because of a gas tax?
On many routes, even a small gas tax would just make airlines fill up their tanks at the other end of the journey and carry extra fuel in one direction.
They are expenses, and like all expenses they are the business's problem, not yours. Somehow, people are conditioned to think that they should pay the airline's taxes (some of them) and 'fees' for them, and somehow customers mentally remove that from the bottom line price. If only they could get customers to believe they should cover other expenses, like income taxes, fuel (oh yeah, they did that), maintenance, and lunch the other day with the Boeing salesperson, they could itemize those too. And where are the discounts when the expenses are less than expected? When profits are high? Oh, suddenly that's their business, not mine.
The pro tip is this, for anything: Just look at the bottom line. Businesses can itemize things however they want, including discounts ('special for you today - 50% off!'), the price of item A can be marked up, the price of item B marked down, it's all meaningless.