The Economics of Airline Class
What it is
Wendover Productions explains how airlines make money from different cabin classes and why premium seats matter so much to profits. It also touches on how this shaped decisions such as the decline of supersonic travel.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters recommend it as an in-depth, accessible look at airline class economics and revisit it in many discussions about airlines.
- 6 people recommended it
- 6 different months
- 3 strong recommendations
- first 2017, last 2025
What HN commenters said
“I just recently found the channel. So much good stuff.”
Wendover channel on airline operations; this one on class economics
sillysaurus3, 2018-01 · Strong recommendation · in “As of today, no US passenger airlines operate the Boeing 747”
“Would highly recommend the YouTube video below [0] from Wendover”
In-depth look at the economics of airline classes
alehul, 2019-03 · Strong recommendation · in “First-class air travel is in decline”
“Highly recommend Wendover's videos on Airline economics”
Wendover's airline economics videos, this one on seat classes
filereaper, 2021-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Billion-dollar airline routes”
“There's a good Wendover video on airline classes”
Good video on airline classes
djsumdog, 2017-04 · Recommendation · in “How the Airlines Became Cartels”
“it talks about specifically why supersonic flights went into oblivion”
Explains airline class economics and why supersonic flight died
caio1982, 2018-07 · Recommendation · in “Is killing the boom the key to supersonic air travel?”
“Wendover Productions had a great video on this a few years ago”
Explains which seat classes earn airlines the most
mynameisvlad, 2019-06 · Recommendation · in “Flying-V: Flying long distances energy-efficiently”
Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.
Topics: airlines, first class, business class, pricing, wendover
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