I think we are in for a big shock with air travel. Prices are going to skyrocket soon. Right now, most airlines still use fuel futures they purchased a year ago. But they will run out soon and they will have to pass on the cost somehow. In less competitive markets, I have seen prices double the last year.
If gas prices don't fall quickly, the U.S. airline industry will have a "massive failure" that will cause more bankruptcies, including liquidations, according to a study published jointly Friday by AirlineForecasts LLC and the Business Travel Coalition. The study claims $130 a barrel oil prices will increase airlines' annual costs by $30 billion, but airlines are only able to generate $4 billion in fare increases and incremental fees. Fuel hedge benefits also could offset $5 billion to $6 billion of the increased fuel costs. But the major airlines could face $9 billion in net losses over the next 12 months if the current range of oil prices holds. The study suggests airline fares will have to increase at least 20 percent just to cover the jump in fuel costs since 2007 -- an impossible increase, given the level of uneconomic seat capacity in the airline system. At current oil prices, several large and small U.S. airlines will default on their obligations to creditors beginning at the end of 2008 and early 2009, the study predicts, warning the airlines "have never faced a darker future." "U.S. commercial aviation is in full-blown crisis and heading toward a catastrophe," the study notes. "Airlines are the primary source of inter-city transportation, critical to national and local economic development, the flow of human capital, movement of just-in-time parts for manufacturing, perishable food and other goods critical to our economy. With airlines gravely threatened, so is our economic well-being."
Does anyone know when the new terminal will be open?
Is there a site that just post direct flights only from airports (JAX)?
