<More wailing and moaning by SOME airline companies. You know, low-fare airlines like Southwest and others have been consistently profitable since Sept. 11. Why? They have to buy planes. They have to pay for fuel. They pay all the same taxes, and pay the same people. What's the deal? I honestly don't know. Anybody out there with more insight, chime in please.

I do know that major airlines were floating happily on the profits extorted from business travelers, who paid monstrous prices that subsidized everything else. Obviously, there was not much incentive to cut costs. I suspect that they got too fat to survive a cutback in high-end travelers.