The larger companies with the stronger balance sheets are in the position to lay out solid capital and generate consistent returns.

It'll be a case of city by city, if that does in fact play out, if US Airways goes down,

The next big obstacle would be financing the exit. Presumably they would be looking for debt financing and some equity financing.

It's going to be hard for Delta to survive alone unless it can drive its costs down to the level of the low-cost carriers.

It looks like the last hurdles are something they can get over here.

As long as investors are willing to stay on board, this company could have enough cash to make a go of it for a while,

As a stand-alone carrier, Delta is the weakest of the Big Five (American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest).

The surge in fuel costs is offsetting a lot of the progress that's been made.

Those two could make sense, ... The problem is, who has the balance sheet and the financing to pull that off.

Given his extensive background in network planning and strategy formulation, he probably would be a good choice for a carrier like Virgin looking to launch U.S. operations.