A possible war in the Middle East with associated increases in fuel prices, and softening of domestic non-premium travel – the same thing that’s hurting Spirit, Frontier, and JetBlue right now. All this has happened before and all this will happen again.
The airlines were doing pretty great right up to 9/11. At USAir we were still hiring 100 pilots a month. The fear of terrorism followed by the Iraq war slammed on the brakes and resulted in a breathtaking number of furloughs that lasted…