Bankrupt!

Bankruptcy is one of those words that will create quite an emotional reaction – depending on what you are specifically talking about. If a potential boyfriend chooses to tell you he filed for bankruptcy, you might think “this guy has made some poor decisions in his life.” If a favorite clothing store goes bankrupt, you might run to get the latest styles for the cheapest price. If you are looking to buy a car, you are likely to not even consider going to with a brand that has recently announced bankruptcy. Why am I babbling about bankruptcy this morning? If you are planning to fly in a major airline in the US this week, did you realize that you have a better than 50% chance that your seat will be managed by a bankrupt company (ok – saying it nicely “in Chapter 11 protection”)? In less than two years the airline industries total fuel bill has more than doubled from $44bn in 2003 to what is estimated to be $97bn for 2005. This has resulted in some of the biggest airline players (most recently Delta and Northwest) to go running to the courthouse (and not for the rumored wedding). It is concerning that employees going to work today for these carriers are worried about their employment (not that it’s a new thing in the industry) rather than being focused on fixing the spring connected to the other thing connected to the rudder. I hope that we can finally wake up and get the teams together (corporate airlines with the assistance of our government) and figure out how we are going to address this issue over the long term. What do you think?