SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Losing even one in 10 customers would substantially reduce airlines' revenue. They don't make much money on each flight as it is; less income would likely cause them to shrink their service, flying fewer routes less frequently.
The problem wouldn't just be customers who chose not to fly. Some passengers might split trips between self-driving cars and airplanes, which would further reduce airlines' revenue. For instance, a person in Savannah, Georgia, who wants to go to London could choose to change planes in Atlanta—or take a self-driving car to the Atlanta airport, and skip the layover.
These changes could substantially change the aviation industry, with airlines ordering fewer airplanes from manufacturers, airports seeing fewer daily flights and lower revenue from parking lots, and even airport hotels hosting fewer guests. The future of driverless cars is appealing to consumers—which means the future of commercial flight is in danger.
A personal fondling session from a TSA agent named Brad, or 5 hours in your self-driving Mazda that your four-year old smeared peanut butter in?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 12 2019, @02:28AM
Pretty safe assumption - the last 60 years have seen refinements, optimizations, but nothing like the huge technological leap from piston to turbine engines.
As for supersonic, been there, done that, proved that the world is full of a bunch of tightwads who don't really want to pay for such things. Maybe if we keep spreading the wealth gap and the next SST is _more_ luxurious than a standard commercial first class, that might sell to the 1%, but even though they fly 10x more than your average peon, that's still a tiny market, and quite a few of them are still frugal for various reasons.
🌻🌻 [google.com]