HALF OF ALL PASSENGERS flying around America are now sitting in airplanes operated by bankrupt airlines, flown by pilots about to see their wages and pensions cut, and served by cabin staff worrying that a pink slip awaits them when they land. These carriers are part of an industry set to lose $7.4 billion this year, reminding old timers of the joke, “Want to become a millionaire? Be a billionaire and buy an airline.”

Delta (with $10 billion in losses since 2001) and Northwest joined United, US Air, and a few small carriers asking the courts to protect them from their creditors, allow them to walk away from their labor contracts, and eventually pass a portion of the obligations of their underfunded pension plans to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp (the government insurer which, ironically, itself is already underfunded to the tune of an estimated $142 billion). United has already handed a $6.6 billion bill to the PBGC; now comes Delta with an even larger, $8.4 billion tab, and Northwest, with a more modest $2.8 billion obligation. Congress, already faced with the president’s request for a few hundred billion dollars to fix New Orleans, is trying to find some way to avoid adequately funding the PBGC, even if that means using some of the accounting techniques that will curl the hair of Messrs. Sarbanes and Oxley.