"Everett M. Greene" wrote in message
...
"Steven P. McNicoll" writes:
"Matthew S. Whiting" wrote

I agree that you need "perfect" competition to yield perfectly low
prices, but perfect competition rarely exists in the real world as it
requires consumers to have perfect knowledge of all alternate products
and their prices.

Can you imagine this scenario.

Plane flying from London to New York. Pilot is wondering which New York
Center he is going to talk to today. There are two ATC operators with their
own bits of airspace and routes into JFK.

Captain calls up the airline's operation center to find out how the bidding
is going along.

There is a guy at the operations center whose job it to find the best most
cost effective route into JFK. The ops guy is trying to bid down the price
of a slot. Traffic is light today as the plane was late leaving London
because of an outbound delay the previous day. The airline rescheduled the
flight back two hours because the cost of a departure slot was more than the
charges for staying at the airport.

The Ops guy opposite numbers in the ATC centers knows what he is up to and
they are playing hard ball. They know that if the plane flies into the
Centers traffic area without a deal being concluded then there will be a big
penalty on the airline.

If this happens the airline will automatically pass the charge on to
passengers as an additional billing on their credit card.

In the end, the Airline Ops guy gets ****ed off with the New York centers
and sends the plane to Toronto where there is less hassle.

Under the new terms of carriage it is the passengers responsibility now to
get themselves to New York from Toronto.

The new bullet-proof doors to the flight deck come in really useful although
the flight attendants give way to Airline Security Operatives (big guys
shaven heads with rotweillers) to ensure the passengers leave the plane in
good order.

With no passengers the Airliner is able to position it self at tiny cost
back to JFK to pick up the passengers waiting for it as ATC charges are
based on the number of passengers carried as a proportion of the capacity.

Of course GA has disappeared due to the excessive user fees. $100 to file a
flight plan and $1 a mile or $2 a minute which ever is the higher as a
facility usage charge.

Far fetched, its that ridiculous it could happen.

Ben