The darkest hour

摘要

As america's airforce took to the skies this week to bomb Iraq, its commercial airline industry was struggling to stay airborne. Big network carriers such as American Airlines and Continental lurched closer to bankruptcy. This week, United Airlines admitted for the first time that its botched efforts to restructure itself under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code might fail, resulting in liquidation. Traffic is collapsing; United Airlines said that its international bookings were 40% down last week. If this were only an effect of the war, that would be bad enough. But some customers may simply be avoiding airlines that look like they might go bust, for fear of being left in limbo. Even if the air miles of frequent fliers might survive bankruptcy, flights booked directly on an airline that succumbs could be lost forever.