Market Forces and My Magic Eight Ball

Another airline shuts down, cancels all flights due to low demand 

The airline startup Stralis Australia was testing an air taxi model. It cited the high costs of regulatory approval and lack of hydrogen-electric infrastructure for early adopters as primary obstacles to their success.

Jet fuel prices remain high due to the U.S.-Iran conflict. This is hitting small and mid-sized airlines especially hard, contributing to multiple shut downs this calendar year already, including:

AlpAvia (March)

Starflite Aviation (March)

Magnicharters

Spirit Airlines (May)

Flamingo Air and Aerodiana (July)

Airlines testing “green” aviation and innovative fueling options are finding themselves faced with investors disinclined to be risk tolerant. 

It is perhaps time for Americans to get with the program and:

1. Start taking the bus locally sometimes, even if they have a car.

You should perhaps crunch some numbers and check how expensive driving is compared to local bus fares. Don't forget to include hidden costs like maintenance and insurance. 

If you live in a place with FREE local buses, it's a no brainier to reduce your gas and maintenance costs and start preparing for a future where taking the bus may be a necessity for you, if only because elderly people often can no longer drive.

2. Improve local bus and cycling infrastructure, such as adding benches, shelters and bicycle racks.

Stop treating people who ride the bus as second class citizens, like beggars can't be choosers and you should be grateful to have ANYTHING. 

It's pretty much the norm that ridiculous amounts of funding gets approved for roads and parking while we require excess minimum parking for most businesses while being stingy about relatively cheap infrastructure like bus shelters, benches and bicycle parking.

Cycling Infrastructure 

Parking Minimums

If we invested adequately in such infrastructure, perhaps more people would walk, bike and bus locally for at least some trips.

3. Start improving ground-based transportation between cities and developing genuinely new travel alternatives, such as modern Air Ships.

This doesn't necessarily require substantial upgrades to physical infrastructure upfront. Just making it easier to use the Internet to plan your trips is potentially a cheap means to make buses and trains more user-friendly.

Moon Train

Air Ships and Travel Food

Bus Stops and the Internet 

The future is now. One way or another, the transportation industry is never going to be the same going forward.

We can step up or get run over.