I can’t think of a sector more vulnerable to soaring oil prices than the airlines. Every dollar increase in the price of a barrel of jet fuel adds more than $1.3 million to the daily operating expenses of the U.S. airlines industry. 

Continental’s Cost Cuts; Possible Eurozone Telecom Merger; Rising Tide of Foreclosures; Jobless Claims Drop; Inflation Controls Threaten China Stocks; Honeywell Shot Full of Holes; Dupont’s Bumper Crop; Novartis on the Guard Against Influenza.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Today’s market action offers us a simple lesson: markets better than governments.

I have to admit when Byron King made his “silent spring” prediction last month — a severe curtailment in air travel as early as next spring because of fuel prices, including an estimate that 70% of U.S. airports are at risk of losing commercial passenger service — I was a bit skeptical.

The airline industry is a mess. Things are so out of whack that one airliner, American Airlines, announced last week that it was going to charge for the baggage that passengers check.

Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) said it would forgo a merger with UAL Corp.’s (UAUA) United Airlines unit, while all-business-class carrier Eos Airlines Inc. ceased operations after filing for bankruptcy protection.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) and Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) are now officially one company, and together now represent the world’s largest airline carrier.