Byron, on his Energy and Oil blog, has a great piece on the future of aviation. He reckons big changes are coming thanks to high crude oil prices…

Mother Nature is taking her revenge in the form of high-priced oil. The cost of jet fuel is soaring. The airplanes of the world are starting to get grounded. The skies of the future will not be so crowded. Flying will cease to be an option for many tens of millions of Americans — maybe for hundreds of millions.

In the future, only the most efficient jets (like Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner) will ever go wheels up at the end of a runway. Ticket prices will be high. How soon will these things happen? I think that we will experience our first silent spring as early as next year.

Now, Byron says, Northwest (NYSE:NWA) and Air Canada (TSE:AC.A, AC.B) are now cutting flights within the US, and grounding more aircraft…

The Airline Waiting Game

By Byron King

Thing is, most of the airline cuts announced to date have not yet taken effect. The plane groundings and service cutbacks will occur towards the end of the year and into 2009. As of now, almost all of the flights are still rolling down the runways.

For the flying public, all that passengers are seeing just now is higher ticket prices and the nickel-and-dime stuff like charging for bagage check and paying for the sodas in coach class. A lot of people who bought tickets for summer travel back in the winter are feeling no pain, really.

Wait until people go to the likes of Orbitz (NYSE:OWW) and Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN), and want to book flights in the first quarter of 2009. Good luck.

Choices of flights, connections, timetables and fares will be causing serious heartburn.

As I’ve been saying, in six months you will not recognize the US airline industry.

More info here.

Until next time,

Byron King

Note: Byron King is a frequent contributor to the free e-letter Whiskey & Gunpowder. To receive daily insights into energy, oil, commodities and other natural resources sign up here!

Source: The Airline Waiting Game