Airline Roulette

So in the past week or so a number of airlines have given up the ghost as it were. Let's see what the rollcall is at this time:

Skybus - a super cheap carrier based in Columbus, Ohio of all places. Probably most famous for having a few $10 fares on each plane. Apparently one cannot actually make money charging less the price of three gallons of gas per flight. Who'd a thunk it?

ATA Airlines - we really knew nothing about this airline as they seem to have specialized in the northern tier of routes which we hardly ever fly. And now we'll never know them unless someone buys the name at the bankruptcy auction. Hopefully not - ATA seems more like the acronym for an association than an airline.

Aloha Airlines - we were familiar with this airline though we never actually flew them since our first trip to Hawaii was only this year. And then we took Hawaiian.

The loss of the two latter airlines will supposedly impact Hawaiian air travel as both were carriers for that market. I somehow doubt that all of the remaining airlines servicing Hawaii are going to have much of a problem obtaining additional aircraft and gates. In any case, I would certainly expect higher fares in the near future. But then that was a forgone conclusion anyway with rising fuel costs and such.

So far it seems to be the smaller regional low cost airlines that are experiencing problems. Of course these are the companies that normally have less resources to weather major increases in fuel costs and other economy driven issues. Me, I'd probably think strongly about trip insurance if I were to book on smaller regional airlines for the foreseeable future.