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Airlines have always been a poor investment. While air travel is essential to the modern way of life, it’s probably unwise to invest in an industry that by its nature has to invest billions to make millions, and that’s when they’re making any profit at all. Commercial aviation is extremely capital intensive, while at the same time its customers are highly price sensitive. Not a great combination for making money.

Even in the best of times, the airlines’ profit margin is in the single digits, usually around 3% or so. It’s often said that on a full flight, the last passenger or two can represent the entire profit for that flight. This obviously varies depending upon the destination, aircraft type, etc., but you get the point.

And there has been no shortage of wealthy people over the years since deregulation who thought that starting an airline would be “really neat.” Almost all of these attempts ended in bankruptcy and liquidation. Airlines are the classic case of making a small fortune by starting out with a big fortune.