Are Most Markets Saturated?

I was going to take the rest of the day to sit back, read the news, catch up on a few things, and clear my head before posting again, but then I came across this article from MSNBC.com about start-up airlines. Yes, I had the same thought, "they do exist?!?!" One could almost wonder if they saw an alien or something.

http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/23/10469971-startup-airlines-face-uphill-battle-to-get-off-ground

My thought on this is that as much as airlines are fantastic, as other transportation modes, of most importance for our concerns should be placed on public transit and less emphasis on private modes of transport.

On the private end of this Robert Mann of R.W. Mann & Co. brings up this point and he said it better than I could:

The market periodically sees new entrants who truly believe they have a better mousetrap, but the ability to differentiate yourself against the incumbent airlines is very difficult.

 With so many players in the field, is it still possible to start up and airline and survive? There are routes in this country, and elsewhere, to remote locations that would prove hard or even inaccessible at best to get to especially in an emergency. State and Federal agencies know this and already use private aircraft to get to these types of areas. Then again, if places such as those are so remote why would anyone else consider a market demand for those types of airlines?

Then again, places such as Worcester Airport, a small regional airport in Massachusetts, could use the potential traffic that could result from such ventures. Currently, one small airline runs out of there to Orlando, FL quite often and is a cheaper alternative to flying out of Bradley International in Connecticut or Logan in Boston. There are routes available most airlines don't fly to and there seems to be interest in locales with small airports people would like to fly to without the need to charter a jet.

But my argument for public transit still reigns true for me. The economic and environmental cost of private transportation is profound and evidence exists to suggest that public transit, and public services in general are cheaper in the long run and being run publicly, the chance of waste and environmental harm are more closely observed and regulated to make sure that the chances of those things happening is lessened by a considerable extent.