>>1446001>Why are there so many?Aviation has a lot of glamour to it. Plus you've got all of history to find defunct carriers. When the market was regulated, airlines were (somewhat artificially) kept as a number of regional carriers - so you had PSA in California, Southern in the South, Pan Am limited to international routes, etc. Eventually through a complicated series of mergers a lot of them wound up as part of other carriers, sometimes carries that died. Then when the market was de-regulated a lot of genuine opportunities opened to start up new carriers. For a while it looked like the major airlines would be totally unable to compete (and many weren't and wound up here.), so it was an encouraging situation if you wanted to get into the industry.
>Why do they fail so frequently? The airline industry requires high capital investment, has low profit margins, is very sensitive to economic shocks and other crises, and has a large number of extant companies who can come in and steal your idea if you're doing something new and exciting (see Kiwi Airways vs Freedom Air in New Zealand. Kiwi introduced cheap flights to Australia using chartered aircraft on a rather shaky financial basis, Air New Zealand quickly turned around and chartered some new planes to start their own similar airline with a stronger financial base.). It's basically a terrible investment overall.
>Why do new people enter this market?There's an excellent quote I was going to post flippantly - I think it was Herb Keller or Freddie Laker basically saying "it's an addiction."
But basically: A mixture of thinking they can make money, the aesthetic appeal of owning and running an airline, and being able to find the money.
Some choice quotes:
>"People who invest in aviation are the biggest suckers in the world."— David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airways
>"If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline."— Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways
