General Question about the airline industry - How are they going to survive?

[Hawaii Hiker]

The airlines were in trouble BEFORE 9/11...Now, with the soaring fuel costs, things will only continue to worsen....Sometimes I wonder how the airline industry can even survive...4-5 smaller carriers have already folded this year alone...Congress probably doesn't have the money for another bailout for the airlines...

Most times when I fly, the airports are crowded & the flights I'm on are usually full to capacity....So what's probably going to happen are serious increases in fares and/or award travel will be next to impossible to redeem, or they'll significantly raise award levels, as just one example, 25,000 miles for a coach class ticket in the lower 48 states might be 50,000 etc....Or, who knows, perhaps frequent flier programs will cease to exist....

Maybe the airlines will just merge; United/American/Continential will be one giant airline & the other would be Delta/Northwest/USAirways....

What's everyones take on the state of the airline industry today?...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I wish I knew...

I work in that industry, so I worry.

[Arctic Dave]

2. I just talked with my buddy who is pilot about this two days ago

You pretty much answered your own question. Small companies are going to fold, prices will increase and then they will merge, period. There is no other option. He was saying that they are bumping passenegers rather then buy fuel at certain destinations becuase they lose money. What does this mean for us, the traveler? I would guess no more spring break trips to Mexico for every other college student and no more three day weekend trips to the beach resort for fun.:shrug:

[uppityperson]

3. That is a good question. We've been talking about it also.

Don't know. If you have freq flyer miles, better to use them than wait and lose them or have the numbers raised so hight.

My take is I don't know how they are going to survive.

[Speck Tater]

4. Long term, the airlines will NOT survive.

Petroleum prices are only going up (with some small up and down bounces and corrections along the way). The post-petroleum world will be a world without airlines as we know them today. Might as well get used to it.

[rpannier]

5. Go back to regulating the airlines

Yes, the tickets would be more expensive.
But it would protect jobs and at this juncture that should be priority.

Most countries on this planet have a national airline.
The quality of service is better than American carriers.
The quality of food is better.
Everything is better.

I've flown Vietnam Air to Vietnam, Nippon Air to Thailand and Thai Air back from Thailand, Korean Air to and from the US and Japan and many other non-US based airlines and everything about them is better.

I flew Northwest 2x from Korea to the US and United 1x. All three times the experienced sucked -- both ways. The quality of service, food, entertainment, etc was outrageously pathetic for a 10-15 hour flight.

[kestrel91316]

6. All I ask is that they last until AFTER I return from NOLA in July.

Beyond that, if they go under, I will bail out of CA and move to the upper Midwest, where I have my only close family.