United Airlines is posting anywhere from 15-30 billion in gross profit for each of the last 4 years, AA and Delta are on somewhat similar trajectories adjusted for size. The airlines going bust operate in the only space that they can be competitive in, which is the one with razor thin margins. You can guarantee that prices will never come down if there are only 3 major players in a $140 billion size domestic market.

I think the GP comment you're replying to nailed the reason why:

> I take a contrarian opinion on this, the price of a flight in the US outside of major hubs is egregious. Especially during peak times or holidays.

Highly-engineered tubes that fly 10km above the ground at very high speeds, have absolutely amazing reliability and long-term safety, and can navigate all over the world are, unsurprisingly, very expensive. But people still want to hop in one and pay less than a train ticket.