[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"An oil price spike to perhaps $200 dollars a barrel or more could wreck whole sectors of our economy, like the airline industry, which is already hurting from oil at $70 a barrel. Just think what would happen if airline ticket prices tripled from today's levels!"

This illustrates how totally asinine the analysis in this article is. The cost of fuel is just under 40% of total airline costs today. Tripling the cost of the fuel would only increase total costs by 80% -- if everything else remained the same. And, of course, there would be a great many adjustments to the new reality: fewer flights with fewer empty seats; faster transition to modern fuel-efficient aircraft; etc.

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

==could wreck whole sectors of our economy, like the airline industry==

And yet Gov't can't develop an efficient, if not profitable program to take advantage a very fuel-efficient mode of travel in our 'fast food' culture mentality: Rail.

Freight hauling this way wins hands down.

[georgia2006]

""Just think what would happen if airline ticket prices tripled from today's levels!"""

It may help that idiot to know that airline fares just to keep pace with inflation since 1978 would probably have to triple.

I have a 1973 OAG at home with schedules and fares. a transcon flight then cost about $200 OW. That would be equal to about $800 today. Yet you can fly JetBlue on a transcon today for about $150 OW easily. So Tripling fares to $450 for a average transcon ticket would still be well below 1973s price.