they are smarter than the airlines..you need to raise prices to cover costs. The airlines keep thinking they can beat it with volume, but don't. The first morning that there are no seats available out of Ohare..the ticket costs will go up. They just don't have the sense to cut back.
The airlines don't really have a choice though. They have huge overhead costs that they have to pay. The airlines have to worry about the pay and benefits for their workers, large insurance costs, maintenance costs, etc. The airlines are gambling that the fuel issues are just a temporary problem. Otherwise they would be massively downsizing their personnel, reducing flights, and selling assets. These actions are fairly irreversible (unlike the decision of a private trucker to park his truck), so the airlines have to think long and hard on what the fuel prices are going to do.
Consider if the airline did assume that fuel prices are going to remain high. They would sell their assets and reduce their size to survive. If the prices later did drop they would be a small company that would have to spend many years to be able to make huge profits again.
Now consider if an airline assumes prices are going to drop. If they do, then they will be able to survive and recoup their losses. If prices remain high, they would go bankrupt, but perhaps the government would bail them out (killing the requirements to pay pensions and the like). Then later they could make reasonable profits as a smaller company (once out of bankrupt status).
None in the shipping industry has such mandates placed on them -