"Jittery airline executives look ahead to $60-a-barrel oil"

[Bluebear]

This is horrible news for the working men and women of USAirways, United, several other airlines. Not to mention their families and the general ripple effect of so many carriers being in trouble.


=====
Jittery airline executives, having already raised fares and cut flights, are now looking ahead to the possibility of $60-a-barrel oil.

Stuart Klaskin of KKC Aviation Consulting says his airline clients are running financial simulations to anticipate the effects. "You've got to assume the worst case," he says.

Prices have been rising all year. Last week, crude oil prices increased to within 50 cents of October's $55.67-a-barrel record. Oil closed Friday at $53.78....

The price volatility is worrisome for United, which has been in Chapter 11 for two years and hopes to exit this fall. But with fuel prices rising for reasons beyond the control of any airline, writing an accurate business plan is daunting. United's business plan assumes oil prices in the $40-to-$49-a-barrel range. Paul Stebbins, CEO of Miami-based fuel marketer World Fuel Services, says airline executives are "anxious and fearful." Jet-fuel prices, he says, are much more likely to rise sharply than to fall sharply.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2005-03-06-jetfuel-usat_x.htm

[Bluebear]

1. PS hope those "irresponsible airline workers" don't want to go bankrupt

I already see some people clucking at people who use credit cards irresponsibly.... if a couple airlines go out and we have 100,000 people unemployed for whom bankruptcy is not an option... oh boy.

[Deja Q]

3. If 100,000 people can't declare bankruptcy, what will they do?

One way or another, they can't pay it back. What's the point?

[Bluebear]

4. I dunno, mandatory slave labor at some neocon camp?

You can't get blood out of a stone so evidently they plan to just make these people homeless.

[barb162]

5. they will have to get jobs picking tomatos somewhere and give back 2 bucks

a week to the creditors for the next 2000 years.

[Ms. Clio]

8. But the damned airlines can still go bankrupt, right?

And their officers and shareholders sure don't have to worry about paying back any of the debts.

[Bluebear]

2. Just for the heck of it

kick

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Here's a solution:

Since the airlines won't be able to afford to operate, all the laid-off airline employees who have gone bankrupt and lost their homes can live in communes in the grounded airplanes.

I want a bulkhead or exit row seat to live in. There might be some pretzel crumbs left in the galleys, too.

[porkrind]

7. Uh-oh. With the new "bankruptcy reform"

bill they had better stay out of financial problems! Oh, wait, that just applies to the little guy, not to corporate America. I guess they can rely on Uncle Sam to bail them out.