When Planes Fly

One thing that seems odd about the airlines' crushing failure to take even the most basic steps to become a real business some day is that, according to everything I've seen reported recently concerning the spiraling costs associated with air travel, airlines have never given any thought to how much they pay for fuel. Now, there are two parts to the "flying metal tube" equation: one is the metal tube. Two is the gas that makes the metal tube fly.

And yet, with the notable exception of Southwest, which bought most of its fuel years ago through a hedge fund at the unthinkably high price of $50-70 a barrel, it actually looks like not one other fucking airline--those paragons of American business acumen and the darlings of Congress and Wall Street--bothered to imagine the link between fuel prices and the viability of their industry. Wow. Clap. Clap.

Are we, the public, really supposed to believe that none of the super-rich, super-connected (albeit, bozos) people running these airlines knows even a single person over at Exxon-Mobil? BP? The fucking dictatorship of Saudi Arabia? Hmmmm? They can't throw a little weight around? No. They can't.

When the oil's all gone, incidentally, it will be a pretty bad day. But, will the world be any worse off to lose the Saudis, too?