Fuel prices exacerbate airlines’ endemic problems

A casual observer of the struggling airline industry might think the nation’s biggest carriers are either inept for losing billions of dollars with no end in sight, or pretty clever for managing to stay in business through it all.

Neither image would be fair.

The bulk of the industry, whose first-quarter results come out this week and next, has no easy way to turn around its fortunes, analysts say. Factors such as soaring fuel prices are beyond the airlines’ control. The pressure to keep fares low has barely let up. And a legacy of inefficient operations will take a few more years – and contract negotiations – to fix