To the extent that the airlines are really near total shutdown, I believe that the government has to bail them out...but no further. The airlines are a key part of our economy and cannot be allowed to fail enmasse.


Having said that, though, I'd like to make another point...namely that this country has just learned that it has little redundancy for transporting people. I believe this is a serious flaw and one that has already bitten us in the ass.


Notice that when people were stranded by the shut down of the airlines they mostly resorted to renting cars one way (at least most of the stories I heard involved that sort of activity). This is because we have almost no transportation infrastructure that does not rely on the airlines or the personal vehicle.


Amtrak serves a (relatively) few cities with a small number of trains of fairly limited capacity. Greyhound/Trailways serve a few more communities. Neither has the coverage that it had even as recently as the 1960's. It is virtually impossible to move around the country (except to major cities, or those that happen to be on the major routes between major cities) without flying or driving a personal vehicle.


As a contrast, does anyone doubt that an airline shutdown would not have been quite as catastrophic had it occurred in Europe? There are trains or busses available to even the smallest of cities on a regular basis.


It doesn't have to be this way, but without a major investment (which I don't see happening in the present circumstances) nothing is going to change.


Chuck