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And as I recall, Delta was hemorrhaging when oil was below $30 per barrel.

They were unprofitable at that time, but the current CEO has only been in the top seat about a year and a half. In that time they've realized huge cost savings both from labor and from other fairly radical initiatives. The only problem is that fuel is their biggest cost, and it's up over 50% from a year ago, so all the gains they make in efficiency, labor costs, and even increased ticket prices get eaten up in fuel.

Delta held on as long as it did hoping that fuel prices would start to drop, or at least not continue to rise, while their cost savings were realized. Once Katrina hit and it appeared oil prices would be stuck high for a while, they realized they couldn't wait on their savings to materialize.