News From the Aviation Front

There's lots of news lately from the airlines and it's uniformly bad stuff, much of it being triggered by the substantial rises in fuel prices that we're all feeling the sting of-much of which is partly accountable to the slump in the dollar, which is caused by the Fed dropping rates which was caused by the sub prime mortgage meltdown which may have been caused by a gentleman in Jakarta deciding to order tea with his breakfast instead of coffee for all we know.

On the other hand, the news from the Motor City is even worse, if that's any consolation.

We're informed that United is going to shut down Ted, it's low cost gambit, idling some older planes, and the usual retooling, reengineering, rightsizing or however you want to call giving people their pink slips.

Also, Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines are in the toils of similar measures, which can't be good for the mechanics, tin bashers, tank rats and rivet pounders of the industry. Northwest, USAir and American Airlines are all going to reduce their fleets in the coming year which will ultimately mean fewer jobs for folks like what I used to be. Whether it translates into order cancellations at Boeing, Airbus, or anyplace else is unknown at this time.

What it does mean is that parking space in places like Marana and Mojave will once again become a scarce commodity.

Photocredit airchive.com