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Monday, March 12, 2007

Run Capital Intensive Industries Round the Clock

The WSJ had a good article, written by a report hospitalized for a week with pneumonia, for a cost of $100,000+, on effective but expensive hosptial medical equipment. One observation was that, unlike other industries, new medical equipment seems to augment, rather than obsolete, old equipment, so the capital bill just rises and rises. It seems to me that this expensive equipment absolutely should be run around the clock. Shift-based discounts could be given if you were willing to come in for a CT scan at, say, 3 AM.

Likewise for airplanes and airports. Given all the problems with airport congestion, why are there no flights between 10 PM and 6 AM??

2 comments:

  1. There are few flights between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. (8 a.m., in some places) because of:

    1. lack of demand--unless you're traveling coast-to-coast or internationally, the airlines can't fill an entire plane (making it worth their while)

    2. local airport zoning rules that prohibit aircraft of certain sizes from flying between those hours

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  2. For comment #1, that sort of aligns with my point--airlines and airports need to lower the price modestly to raise demand.

    #2 is another problem altogether.

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