> How "might" it be "far better" to the public at large for airlines to serve fewer people at a higher cost?
For the same kinds of reasons it's better for the post office to serve people in remote areas at higher cost as opposed to leaving them without service and cut off. The same reasons why it's better for more Americans to have access to broadband, not just the Americans who live in the areas that would make ISPs the most profit. It can be worth it to spend more money when it means providing access to important services to more Americans vs a select few.
> If they did as you suggest, they'd be demonstrably and measurably delivering FAR less to the public while charging even more money.
Which is exactly the case. They ARE delivering less. Less access by only providing service to the locations which give them the most profit. Less leg room so that they can cram more people into every flight. Less service by cutting staff. Giving passengers fewer options/less choice. Allowing less baggage. Flights are increasingly canceled and delayed. Customer satisfaction gets lower and lower all the time. They are giving us less.
They are also charging more and more. Airline tickets are skyrocketing, outpacing inflation. Even as the service airlines provide keeps getting worse and worse, the prices keep getting higher, and higher but there are also the endless bullshit fees for everything they can think of (https://www.elliott.org/on-travel/hidden-airline-fees-are-ev...) which are often hidden.
These examples are not demonstrative of what you are arguing. If you were to instead propose "closing half of all UPS stores in densely populated cities and reallocating them to rural environments" it would be an apt comparison, and equally illogical.
There is an argument to be had (maybe) about expanded airline access for less populated geos. There is only an asinine argument to be had about doing that at the cost of reduced service for major population centers.
They are serving far more people at far lower ticket prices than when they were regulated. I.e. deregulation enabled them to put the planes where the people are.
Do you know how much it costs to fly a jetliner? Why does it make sense to you that a 767 should fly into a rural airport to pick up 3 passengers?
For the same kinds of reasons it's better for the post office to serve people in remote areas at higher cost as opposed to leaving them without service and cut off. The same reasons why it's better for more Americans to have access to broadband, not just the Americans who live in the areas that would make ISPs the most profit. It can be worth it to spend more money when it means providing access to important services to more Americans vs a select few.
> If they did as you suggest, they'd be demonstrably and measurably delivering FAR less to the public while charging even more money.
Which is exactly the case. They ARE delivering less. Less access by only providing service to the locations which give them the most profit. Less leg room so that they can cram more people into every flight. Less service by cutting staff. Giving passengers fewer options/less choice. Allowing less baggage. Flights are increasingly canceled and delayed. Customer satisfaction gets lower and lower all the time. They are giving us less.
They are also charging more and more. Airline tickets are skyrocketing, outpacing inflation. Even as the service airlines provide keeps getting worse and worse, the prices keep getting higher, and higher but there are also the endless bullshit fees for everything they can think of (https://www.elliott.org/on-travel/hidden-airline-fees-are-ev...) which are often hidden.