The problem they've got is that they did it the wrong way round. Fares have been falling (in relative terms) over the past five years reactionary to competition, to the point where they had to say 'oh crap we're making less money, how can we fix it?' If they'd known what was coming they could have done it in a big blow and lowered fares. But the market doesn't work like that... and hindsight is wonderful.