Have to agree - I doubt that anybody in mgmt/strategy at the airlines know a) what is happening and b) what to do.
Everybody concentrates on costs - because its the easy thing to do. I'm afraid that only DAL and AMR have a clue - even if the clues are pure gambles.
DAL with their LCC is doing what could be argued is the same as CO Lite, Metrojet or !!!!!tle by United - but at least they are trying.
AMR is re-trying the simplified fare structure that lost them about a US$ billion in the early 90's - maybe it will fail again, but one thing is clear - in the hurry to cut out the travel agents, the airlines thru the web, have made airline pricing transparent - and biz trvlers don't want to pay 2,400 for a transcon and sit next to someone who paid 400 for the privilege of staying over Sat night.... when the tech economy was booming, companies did not care about little things like saving a few grand on air tickets....
On the other hand the financial community believes that everybody should become like Southwest - yeah right - that will work if nobody ever wanted to fly to HKG or SYD on US carriers - then it will be a happy world with everybody flying 737's hopping around the US (except for Wall St types who will no longer have domestic First Class to travel in...)
However it does appear that unlike PanAm, Eastern etc, these days some majors can shrink into profitability - the main reason being the express carriers at the regional end, and the deathStar type alliances at the international end. Code-sharing, mileage cooperation, and revenue sharing now means that UAL can get more RJ's via UAX, abdicate more routes to LH metal, and still offer the same route network
