I agree with you there Intruder. The economy will definitely hurt the scheduled carreirs. I am not sure how it will affect ACMI though. I was under the impression that when a customer signs an ACMI the carrier is basically "on demand". If the economy heads south, as it seems to be doing world wide the on demand work will dry up no matter who picks up the tab. No customer would want to fly around an aircraft empty. I could be wrong but I don't think so. I cannot imagine a carrier not having some sort of an "out clause" or some other instrument to protect them. I have seen in the past a lot of ACMI carriers be the first to go in the eras of downturns, then start up again as the economies are in an upturn. This cycle seems to lag about 6 months behind the real economic situation. To dispute whale, I am not sure the long term and short term makes that much of a difference.
As far as the -800 that is so touted by some, if you look at the numbers the -800 stills uses a whole lot more gas than the 777 with a little more payload, the only advantage being the cubic space.
At any rate, this next year is going to be interesting. I would hate to see anyone furloughed due to short sighted management decisions.