Glenn Alperin submits:
I won't go so far as to say the airlines are all in trouble, but surely a few of them are, and those that aren't in trouble are currently hurting very badly. It's no wonder why, really. The cost of jet fuel, much like the cost of gasoline, has put a serious crimp on the entire airline industry's ability to maintain a steady stream of profitability. So, what are airlines to do?
Discussions continue to move forward on the part of Northwest (NWA) and Delta (DAL) on the prospect of a merger. These discussions have been ongoing for months, and it remains to be seen whether or not the domestic airline industry has the ability and resources to pull through this difficult time, merger or not. Personally, though, I'm rather disappointed in the efforts of the airlines to try to make this a viable industry in such a difficult time. American Airlines (AMR), for example, decided that they were going to make up for the cost of jet fuel by adding a surcharge to bags checked at the curb, thus penalizing skycaps at Logan Airport whose tips were significantly reduced as a result of this fee. (See full story here.) Although this stance was later repealed as the result of a lawsuit, airlines still seem to be up to the same kind of tricks, but now, instead of cheating their skycaps, they are cheating their customers.
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[Source: SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page]
