Listen up people, hopefully some of you geniuses took economy 101. We are by all indications heading for recession. The consumer is reposible for about 2/3 of economic growth/activity. When the country enters a recession, people stop spending money on discretionary things such as air travel, business travel gets cut back or severely restricted (think teleconference). Raising fares is not the sole answer. The economy contracts in a recession including airlines. Raising fares to $1000 to go 500 miles won't mean anything if you dont have any freaking buyers for said ticket.

The boom times are going to slow down for awhile boys, get used to it. Go learn abour airline history 101.