I still believe that the root cause of this is the parabolic rise in oil prices, which is caused by speculators piling into oil futures (for several reasons, notably the cheap money policy of the Fed, the lack of other investment alternatives, and the way the investment houses have been able to control the commodities markets). Hardly anyone actually in the oil business believes there is a shortage of oil. The shortage is all on Wall St.

Which means that someday the price of jet fuel should go down. Will any airlines be left at that time. I think so — at least I hope so. Of course, even if every does go back “to normal” it seems hard to believe that passengers will get all their perks back. After all, the airline business was a lousy business BEFORE oil went parabolic.