I think the airline industry has the potential to be in much better shape after this recent "cleansing."

Hopefully, the large amount of carriers filing for bankruptcy or shutting down in recent weeks is enough to convince Delta and Northwest to merge. If this happens, I believe United and Continental will be right behind them to merge. This is GOOD for the airline industry long term. Fewer airlines means less cut throat competition, and more pricing power. More pricing power leads to higher fares, and that leads to airline profits.

I think the best thing we can hope for is all the bottom feeding start ups (Skybus & Virgin) go out of business. Then the middle of the road LCC's (Frontier, Spirit, Jetblue, Airtran, Midwest) either merge with one another, or are picked up by a larger carrier (AA, UAL/CAL, DAL/NWA, US Air, or Southwest).

There has been some talk of re-regulation recently, but I am not sure how I feel. On one hand, it has the ability to kill the cut throat compeition that is destroying our industry. But on the other hand, it seems like regulation was not the best idea either. I am hoping for the best of both world's. I feel if our industry had just a few large players (AA, UAL/CAL, DAL/NWA, Frontier/Spirit/Jetblue, Airtan/Midwest, Alaska/Southwest), we could have a strong industry with the ability to pass costs onto the consumer. We wouldn't need the government regulating the industry, but having just these few carriers would almost be a form of regulation.

I also think this downturn may be enough to stop start-up's for a reasonable amount of time. You'd have to be stupid to invest in a brand new airline with today's lack of pricing power in the industry and the obvious $112/barrel oil. New start-up's like Virgin and Skybus will not be dragging the industry down for several years to come.

I just hope the weak links are eliminated (Mesa, Virgin, Lynx, etc...), and the ones left standing are able to consolidate and merge to make this industry a better place to work.