It isn't the case. It's a simplistic gloss on a complex finance outcome.
replySome flights make money.
Some flights lose money.
Some finance structures make money while looking like losses to acrue tax benefits for other activities.
Sometimes the money is being made by holding companies not operating companies. Sometimes the assets are worth more as spares than operating.
All companies are complex. I do not think "flights don't make money" is true for all airlines, all flights.
Because people take "airline X makes $50k profit, and makes $55k off of the credit card, so therefore it makes all money from credit cards" which is true from a certain accounting point of view, and also entirely false, in that it's all accounting tricks and the credit card would be worthless without an airline.
replyCredit cards aren't really a thing in Europe and even where people might have them they don't make money. There's no kickback schemes, cashback etc.
replyBag fees and other ways to get passengers to pay above the headline price. Like this kind of thing: https://hallofshame.design/ryanair-when-every-page-is-a-dark... and https://darkpatterns.uxp2.com/pattern/ryanair-travel-insuran...
replyNot to mention that loyalty programs and credit card bonuses don't exist in Europe.
replyThis isn't true. European airlines do have loyalty programs with "miles".
replyAir France, British Airways, Finnair, Turkish Airlines, just to name a few, all have miles programs.
They just aren't tied to credit cards because the EU caps interchange fees to 0.3%, so there simply isn't enough money to have a meaningful credit card point system.
RyanAir notoriously uses cheaper secondary airports.
replyBecause it's nonsense. It's from some YouTube video that went viral a few years ago.
replyBecause their social media strategy is fire
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