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Buckle up those seatbelts West Virginia. and put those chairs into the upright position. Air travel is in for a bumpy ride.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the turbulence has nothing to do with the idea of building an airport in Lincoln County.
Instead, the shaking and quaking is coming from the industry itself. It is struggling to survive in an era when low-cost carriers are the trend, Sept. 11 is more than a date on a calendar and everything that once seemed to be the norm is now being thrown out.
In the past three years, many of the nation's biggest carriers have encountered significant financial woes. Two - United Airlines and US Airways are in bankruptcy-court protection. Delta Air Lines, the third largest carrier in the nation, is quickly following suit, losing $2 billion last quarter and burning through as much as $3 million a day in cash, according to some news reports.
And things aren't looking up. Earlier this month, US Airways warned that without an influx of...