Certainly greed, ego, and incompetence all factor in here, as they do throughout the airlines industry since after WWII.  Howard Hughs primed the industry's character.  Rational financial decisions should not be presumed in this industry impregnated with ego and greedy visionaries.  Some academics think that the airlines industry morphed from yesteryears' railroad robber barons.  "What da hecks" are always going exist here.