There is no doubt that this week's troubles at Swissair are only the beginning of further airline groundings to come.
Thousands of staff cuts and loss-making balance sheets all seem rather remote to the majority of us and very much someone else's problem. But when airlines start axeing routes and closing down, then many more of us are directly affected. On page four we explain how to avoid losing your money if an airline goes bust, but if we look at the long-term picture, airlines going out of business is a bigger problem than a few thousand people losing money spent on tickets.
The big danger is that our travel options and ultimately our cultural horizons will narrow. Just look at our homes today as a result of all our travelling. The Scandinavian look in the living room is not just a result of trips to Ikea on the motorway, and the chorizo in your fridge (or the fact most of us can now pronounce it) is not just because it's now sold in Sainsbury's.
We could soon be back in the days before EU intervention when there were monopolies and duopolies on most major routes in Europe. This meant that for most European capital cities just British Airways and one national carrier offered tickets to each place. Although airlines were banned from price-fixing, you would often find return tickets to a city for £200, £300 even £400 return and the two airlines involved offering fares within just a few pounds' difference of each other.
Before European airline deregulation, travelling to somewhere else in Europe was often more expensive than travelling to the US. After the EU broke the monopolies, new players such as EasyJet and Ryanair popped up offering cut-price, no-frills services. However unreliable Ryanair's reputation, or criticisms of it using airports miles from city centres, the reality is that many of us have been able to visit places such as Scandinavia or Venice in recent years which were previously just too expensive. When just SAS and British Airways flew between London and Stockholm it was near impossible to get a seat for under £300. This week Ryanair is advertising a return fare (if booked by tomorrow) for £29.98 return to Stockholm. OK, it's a special offer to encourage travel after the US attacks, but even before the sale, there were bargain tickets to be had.
But however busy the lost-cost airlines boast they are right now with all their special offers on, the reality is that they are suffering too. Although their load factors are high, some are not making any money and there are likely to be casualties among the low-cost carriers too.
One of the most frightening things about the downturn in travel after the US attacks is that we are in danger of becoming more narrow-minded. The current problems between Islam and the West stem from a lack of understanding between different cultures. It is said that travel broadens the mind. If we don't travel there are price wars (good in the short term) then airlines go bust and prices go up and many of us won't even have the choice to travel any more. Which means we'll be even more misinformed about the rest of the world than before.
