Economic downturn has brought steep decline in the Air travel, dragging Airline industry to the bottom.

Declining business travel has offset the benefits of the lower fuel prices.

It should be noted here that 6.09 billion dollars were spent on fuel by the nine largest U. S. Airlines in Q2 of 2009, 4.93 billion dollars less than in Q2 of 2008. However, operating revenues of these carriers plunged to 26.56 billion dollars in Q2 of 2009, down 6.73 billion dollars.

Jeff Smisek, president of Continental Airlines Inc. was not sure about the longevity of the economic uncertainty. Speaking on the topic, he said, "We don't know when a recovery will come, and there's a lot of uncertainty about the economic environment."

The success of the Airline industry has direct correlation with business travel which is showing no signs of recovery yet.

In order to bridge the gap between costs and revenues some airlines like AirTran Airways have increased Airfares by about 10-20 dollars for round trips.

Continental Airlines, US Airways and United Airlines have resorted to raise baggage charges by 5-20 dollars for the first bag plus 30 dollars for the second one.

The U. S. airlines recorded a plunge of 6.5 percent in Air travels in June.

However, As per Scott Kirby President of US Airways, business travel is progressing. He quoted revenue from business travel were down 30-35 percent in May as compared with 28 percent down in June.