Should any business posting a $1billion loss survive

[Taomonkey]

United Airlines post 1.4 bil loss this quarter, American post 1 bil loss for the same quarter, thats a 4 billion loss for the year ( if the trend holds) how. Government bail out,,BS. There are just too many flights, remember in the 70's when if you wanted to fly somewhere from anyplace than about 4 major cities, you had to leave on a certain day, and couldnt get back for a few days. Now I can fly anywhere about anytime. Business flights are a thing of the past, conference calls and web conferences are here to stay.

Southwest Airlines rules, naked drunken pilots, yes, but they still make a profit.

[shaolin kungfu]

Naked drunken pilots with guns!

[Vapour]

I think you are just ranting but to answer your question. You should consider loss in term of aggregate asset. And yes, global airline industry had problems way before 9/11.

[Budokan]

They should be allowed to survive if they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. However, we should not be bailing them out just because they've had a run of bad luck. (everyone had a run of bad luck after 9/11; they're not special) I'm a capitalist through and through. If a business can't make it in the free market, f*ck 'em. Somebody else will take their place and probably end up doing a better job.

I'm still waiting for the Postal Service to go belly up. On that day I'll dance naked with Rolls with a kama in my hand on the next full moon in downtown Fredricksburg....

[guohuen]

Airlines have been a losing proposition since their inception. I thought Ya'll were talking about other thieves like enron, aol, mci and tyco.

[MasterKiller]

Airlines have always been subsidized by the government. They have always lost money on the commerical side, but make up for it by carrying mail, soldiers, hot interns, etc... for the federal government.

[joedoe]

Put it this way - on my salary, I can't afford to drop a $100 bill and leave it there.

On Bill Gates' salary, it is cheaper for him to leave it there than to pick it up.

It is all relative to how much you are worth in total. Yes, $1 billion is a lot of money, but if I am worth $100 billion, then it is only 1%.