Jay Rockefeller: “as I was indicating, I do not think most of our colleagues--they pick on certain subjects within aviation that are of…”

“as I was indicating, I do not think most of our colleagues--they pick on certain subjects within aviation that are of interest that have hot buttons to them--look at the general situation of where the U.S. commercial aviation industry is, how bad its situation is, and I think it is time to tell the truth about that before we begin the debate on this bill. After posting nearly $35 billion in cumulative net losses from 2001 through 2005, over the past 2 years, American commercial air carriers were able to recover financially for a brief period from the effects of September 11's grounding and subsequent adjustments. That is understandable. Domestic airlines earned an estimated net profit of roughly $3.8 billion last year, more than twice the $1.7 billion net profits they achieved in 2006. That would appear to be going in the right direction. This year, however, marks a turning point, which I fear will be a sustained downturn in the industry's long-term outlook. Within the past week alone, we saw the Nation's third largest carrier--Delta--announce a first quarter loss of $6.4 billion. On that same day, the Nation's fifth largest airline--Northwest Airlines--posted a quarterly loss of $4.1 billion. This month, we witnessed four of our airlines--Frontier Airlines, Aloha Airlines, ATA Airlines, and Skybus Airlines--forced to declare bankruptcy. Four airlines collapse in 1 month, and two airlines announce a combined loss of $10.5 billion in one single quarter.…”