1. Industry 25% smaller. UAL and US Airways will fail, but not before AA and maybe CAL go Chapter 11. AA will have massive layoffs in the Fall and will declare BK in the winter and impose a draconian contract on employees. Many of the AA leadership will leave with fat bonuses prior to BK.The DAL/NWA merger will go badly and result in parking of a large number of airplanes and large numbers of layoffs with Anderson saying "It's not the merger, it's the economy."
2. Bad recession and inflation in the US economy. Europe and Asia will follow.
3. Little to no air service at smaller airports.
4. Very few sub-100 seat airplanes.
5. Companies, aided by the government and courts, will dumb-down the profession even more.
6. The gubment will sell-out to foreigners and allow majority ownership of US carriers as well as open sky rights.
7. Commuter companies will go away and mainline will pickup that flying. However, the unions will be emasculated by the companies, government, and court system and will be working for commuter wages anyway.
8. Senior mainline pilots will sell-out junior pilots in a vain attempt to hold onto their compensation a little long. In the long run, it won't work and you'll see the pilot profession basically a truck driver status job.
9. Obama and the democrats will be running the government, but will gladly screw over the airline unions in favor of keeping tickets as cheap as practical. Obama will continue to ride-the-tiger in Iraq and Afganistan.