Sadly, it's probably going to take a few more airline bankruptcies to fix what's wrong with this industry. Airlines, due to heavy unionization in general, allowed their costs to skyrocket during the booming economy of the mid to late 90's. Labor seemed to believe that there was an endless ceiling on revenue that would forever offset increasing labor costs. And Senior airline Mgmt didn't do much to change their minds. Fast forward to now, when we have a major shift in industry dynamics, bringing us down to a new fare/revenue environment, and you have a recipe for disaster. I'm generally opposed to more government bailout money. However, the feds should lower or cease their incessant taxation of the airlines. And the costs of security and subsidization of the moronic TSA should be the job of the government, not the airlines. Other than that, if an airline cannot sustain cash flow, then let them file for Ch.11 and reorganize.
As painful as it is to all involved, downsizing and cost lowering is desperately needed across the industry. Had both labor and senior mgmt of the traditional U.S. majors rectified this obvious problem years ago by working together, a less painful solution could have been found. Unfortunately, now we're seeing that bankruptcy or liquidation of a few airlines may be what is necessary to fix this industry.