Whats the latest at US Airways?
People are very demoralized over there, too. It’s a situation between bad and worse. The airline is at the point now where they can’t even hire people at the wages they’re offering. Entry-level wages are now down to $7.17 an hour. You work in the elements. You work weekends. You work in the evening. You can get a job at McDonald’s (MCD ) for $8 or $9 an hour — and it’s warm and you get free cheeseburgers. You can only cut so far until you get to the point where you can’t operate. Q: Do you see the airline industry shrinking? Will the pressure from Delta on fares force weaker carriers like US Airways to go out of business? A: I’ve been in this industry 30 years. Since then, they’ve always said, “We’ll kill off the weak sister, and the rest of us will be profitable.” That has never happened. Eastern is gone. Braniff is gone. TWA is gone. Pan-Am is gone. It doesn’t work. What’s got to happen is some sense that they’re running a business to be profitable, and they’ve got to charge fares t
