Finally, a cogent look at this industry. We have witnessed an absurd display of corporate irresponsibility from all parties: management, unions, customers and government. As I have noted in the past, this is equal to the fiasco which hit the Savings and Loan industry 20 years ago. You cannot continue to sell your product at less than it costs you to provide it. That's an imutable of business logic, but relying solely on irrational marketplace dictates and a Little Orphan Annie view that "the sun will come out tomorrow" and save the day...

Thank you for highlighting this article. [However, since we now have the MSNBC link, perhaps the actual cut and paste can be edited out as it violates copyright and the regs of FlyerTalk.

The situation is no different up here. It was ably demonstrated when CP went under two years ago, and yet our government likes to believe Canada can sustain two healthy competitive national carriers. To the point of giving AC's competitors loan guarantees, while letting AC spin further into crash mode.

I expect that by this time next year, we will have seen the merging of UA and US, AA and AmericanWest and one other, and NW with CO and/or DL, whichever does not end up a part of AA. SW and AS will survive as they have nicely secured a niche in which to survive.