[cogman10]

> The answer is actual competition with some reasonable passenger protections.

This is physically impossible. Airplanes require airports and airports only have so much space they can dedicate to flights.

An extreme example of this is the Ronald Reagan airport. How could you possibly get more competition there when it cannot grow and it's surrounded by the urban area?

That's like saying the solution to your water company monopoly is more competition. You can't bury more water lines for different companies. Someone has to own the existing lines.

[ThunderSizzle]

Fiber optics is getting multiple providers in several markets, if not many. They do bury/lift multiple lines, even in more rural areas.

I think the biggest issue with airlines is they act as only an airline. The first company to realize they are a transportation company and can get you door to door will be great.

E.g. an airline that can seamlessly get you to/from the airport via a local premium/private transit line that can get you to your home or destination.

[cogman10]

I've worked at burying fiber. It's a LOT easier to place and bury vs a water line. Fiber lines are a lot smaller and they don't have to be trenched in. That means you can run a fiber line under driveways without doing almost any damage. You can also trench in fiber lines in a fairly non-destructive manner that mostly just leaves a small scar in the grass.

Water lines can't be put in that way because PVC pipe isn't flexable. Ditto for gas.

That's the reason you might see more ISP competition and lines placed but you aren't seeing competition with your sewage or water provider.

If you've ever seen a company do water line work, you know they had to dig up and repave every single driveway the line was buried under. It also takes a lot longer time.

Hence the reason I talked about water providers and not fiber providers. You have similar problems putting in new waterlines as you would expanding an airport (only much smaller and easier to overcome).

[nebula8804]

>I think the biggest issue with airlines is they act as only an airline. The first company to realize they are a transportation company and can get you door to door will be great.

Well American Airlines is already doing this, you book a ticket and on some routes they transport you via a bus instead of a plane....still sucks.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GR4h6d4sa8

[bombela]

I think that's what you get with a first class ticket (never experienced it myself).

[johnnyanmac]

To be pedantic, I'm sure you "can", but the effort and political sway to do so for what may not even be profitable is humongous.

That was pretty much Google fiber in a nutshell last decade. They existing cable lines eventually pushed Google out of it.