[convolvatron]

that seems very unlikely. margins are already quite thin, and the airlines are making most of their money with the higher fare tiers. if you remove some of those customers, then its entirely possible that the base fare will increase in response.

[lokar]

This big airlines in the US loose money overall operating flights. They make it up on loyalty programs and credit cards.

[nradov]

Exactly. Now they even make decisions on which routes to offer based on how likely they are to attract customers who use their branded credit cards. The analytics around this are quite sophisticated.