It is pertinent because it explains what P&H has been trying to say.
"First, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, proponents maintained that the government’s grounding of all airlines was reason enough to provide some financial aid. To be sure, the forced grounding of all aircraft for several days did impose a financial cost on the carriers, and there is some justification for this argument.
Second, those in favor of payments also asserted that the U.S. government had an obligation to compensate airlines for the drop in demand for air travel after 9/11. According to this argument, since the airlines could not have foreseen the attacks and the resulting drop, they should not be held financially responsible.
"The potential business risk of terrorism had been known for years. Any airline executive understands that hijackings and crashes tend to promote negative perceptions about the safety of air travel. Some might argue that the size and scope of the attacks dwarfed any previous incident and the government had to respond because the airlines could not possibly have been prepared for such an event. Yes, but one must also ask why the government, meaning the taxpayers, should be liable. Are taxpayers to be liable for all business risks that any firm might suffer in another massive terrorist attack?
In reality, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) order came after many airlines, American and United Airlines, for example, had voluntarily halted their own operations. It is likely that the other airlines would have followed suit given the events of that day. Left to their own devices, it is not clear how long they would have chosen to ground their own planes.
However, even supposing that they would have chosen to continue to operate, the total cost to the airlines was much smaller than what the government provided. John Samples of Cato’s Center for representative Government calculated a more realistic figure for the total losses incurred by the airline industry. In fact, Samples’s source for this number was the airline executives themselves. They estimated the losses from the four-day grounding at $300 million per day, or $1.2 billion. This amount, though certainly significant, is far less than the $15 billion in direct aid and loan guarantees.
Even before the 9/11 tragedy financial analysts had predicted a loss of $2.5 billion for the airline industry for 2001 because of the recession the nation was experiencing.
This problem was magnified, James Gattuso of the Heritage Foundation noted, by the stiff competition old-line carriers were facing from new low-cost entrants such as JetBlue and established discounters like Southwest Airlines, which had steadily gained market share for years. In their struggle to adapt to changing market circumstances, US Airways and the others were forced to reduce costs, renegotiate with their unions, and improve efficiency, or suffer additional losses in passenger traffic."
http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-futility-of-the-government-airline-bailout#axzz2N3ge0DoF
Another interesting read and addresses also, US Airways, which you mentioned above.
cheers.
