TBS,
The US airlines do seem remarkably well protected. Corporate welfare is alive and well in the land of the free market, and why would they ever want to sign up to Kyoto when they have so many kerosine guzzling old wrecks carting around plane loads of air?
Who cares about the odd few thousand Euros given to Ryanair to set up routes when Alitalia get bailed out to the tune of hundres of millions for the nth time.
These behemoths are probably all above the worry of the individual passenger getting shafted, but we are all paying in the long run.