Aviation is bad business today, why do so many people still want to get in?

Your chances of launching a successful airline nowadays are far lower than, say, in the 1970s

Yet another airline has collapsed – this time British operation Flybmi, costing almost 400 jobs as hundreds of flights were cancelled at short notice. It is the latest in a string of recent European airline failures, including Air Berlin, Alitalia, Monarch, Primera, Azur and Cobalt. This is despite years of good growth in worldwide air passenger demand, including in Europe. So why are so many airlines going out of business?

Aviation is an unattractive industry from an investor point of view at the best of times, notwithstanding the passenger growth. Aeroplanes are expensive assets with few alternative uses, which limits the