Only if you're just back from that isolated desert island vacation could you have missed it, but the airlines have been in a bit of a dither of late:
• The FAA's lax enforcement scandal involving Southwest Airlines led to renewed vigor that grounded most of American Airline's fleet as inspectors measured wiring harness bindings, and carriers with older fleets are bracing for more crackdowns.
• London Heathrow's Terminal 5 opened to much fanfare -- and lost luggage.
• We watched the domino-like collapse of Aloha Airlines, ATA and Skybus -- and Frontier filed for bankruptcy while continuing service.
• JPMorgan Chase and Avondale Partners predicted in their April 7 reports that Virgin America, the startup airline partly owned by U.K. billionaire Richard Branson, may be the next airline to fail after losing $34.8 million in its first quarter of operation.
• Delta and Northwest made a deal to create the world's biggest carrier, sparking talk of even bigger deals to come.
What's a traveler to expect?
With big airlines shrinking their fleets to cope with record fuel prices, expect flights to become even more crowded and unpleasant.
Layoffs are beginning again for a business that already suffers service problems -- expect harried and grumpier gate agents and flight attendants.
And with equipment nationwide (air traffic control systems, airplanes, airline computer systems) aging and in many cases overtaxed -- expect more breakdowns and weather problems becoming more disruptive.
