Long shot

摘要

Anyone who ever played a game of pick-MM up football as a child (we're talking US-style football here) can recall the three simple words that were certain to be in the playbook of every John Elway wannabe ages 8 to 18: "Everybody go long." Now US legacy airlines are adopting a similar strategy. Within the past few weeks, American, Continental, Delta and United have announced plans to freeze or even pull down domestic capacity while boosting their services to Europe, Asia and Latin America. Sure it's a desperation play—just like in football—but that doesn't necessarily make it wrong, at least up to a point. Lower-cost competitors and the Internet have turned the domestic market into a toxic wasteland for network airlines, particularly at today's energy prices. But with a few notable exceptions in the Pacific, US carriers are at least as cost-competitive as their main counterparts in Europe, Asia and Latin America, even if they sometimes lag in the service department. Furthermore, ticket prices have not sunk to the equivalent levels found inside Europe or the US and Canada. In the international arena, it's still possible to charge more than $400 for a one-way ticket and get away with it.