“People book these flights as much as a year in advance, and rebooking can cost big bucks. Crews and aircraft are already budgeted. To pull a long-haul Intl flight means as many as three VERY expensive assets could be sitting on the ground, making nothing. Finding new markets for them is a VERY expensive proposition.”
Stopping the movement of about 10,000 times as many people right after 9/11 didn’t seem to destroy our airline business.
These countries are a trickle.
Despite the huge subsidies given to airlines after 9/11, and the waiver of liability, some airlines still did not survive it, or recover from it.
United filed in late 2002, Sabena, Sun Country, Midway and National filed and stopped operating, airlines like Aloha, VASP, Swissair, Northwest, Delta, Air Canada, USAir, Hawaiian, Ansett, and Alitalia couldn’t recover and eventually filed, and dozens of smaller airlines folded.