Ask the pilot: With oil prices soaring, airlines are struggling as never before. What's in store …

These days you can't crack open a newspaper or click to a Web site without stumbling across one or more front-page stories about the airlines. Bankruptcies, safety scandals, fuel woes, you name it. And if there's a common thread in this media barrage, it's that none of the stories are positive. For carriers the future looks uncertain at best, nightmarish at worst.

Everybody knows the airline… » Full Story on Salon.com