Originally Posted by bernardd

I don't disagree that failure of one or more legacies would be a solution. In generally the US industry seems to be partly the product of too much meddling, and partly the result of some crazy provisions in the Chapter 11 laws, plus the abuse of the pensions system. IMO it's time got back to the old fashioned notion of businesses existing to make profits that are distributed to stockholders. If the business fails it gets closed and stays closed, even if some of the assets are bought and used to start another fully funded enterprise.

Should there be 3 or 6 or 11 legacy carriers in the US? I don't know, but at this point the competition in generally from WN, B6 etc etc is strong enough that quickest and easist fix is for the politicians to back off spouting about competition, allow foreigners to own the businesses if they're foolish enough, close up some of the abuses of Chapter 11 and let the consumers decide where they want to spend their dollars. It would be rough for a while but in the medium term it's by far the best solution.