American lost a whole lot less than it would have otherwise, and Continental, Delta, and Northwest all reported quarterly profits that would have been losses without one-time events including government handouts. None of these airlines made money off of their airline operations. Delta and Northwest had help for their bottom-lines from the sale of the Worldspan Computer Reservation System.

And as Northwest disentangles from Worldspan, they have struck a deal to give Sabre (a competing reservation system) access to its web fares that are currently only available on its own website and on Orbitz in exchange for lower booking fees.

Remind me again why the government thinks we need to regulate these distribution vehicles?