From the Minneapolis Star Tribune today: George Wozniak the president of Minneapolis-based Hobbit Travel was asked among other things: Do you think the major carriers will see much recovery in 2004? His answer was "Yes. United has absolutely been amazing in their recovery. Chicago-based United Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2002. Wozniak said he's been impressed by the heavy passenger loads on United flights in recent months."

"We have to wait and see on Ted, where they deploy that," Wozniak said, referring to the new low-fare airline that United is launching."


And the last question was: What do you think the most significant development in the airline industry was during 2003?


His reply: "United is in business. That's huge." If United had been liquidated, "the [flight] capacity loss would have been huge. We'd still be catching up." Consumers would have been forced to pay higher fares for the seats on the market flown by the surviving carriers, he said. "The fact that United made it was more significant than any of us will ever know."


------------------
Greetings from the land of 10,000+1 lakes.

[This message has been edited by boomerang-boy (edited Dec 30, 2003).]