End of the road for national airlines, says analyst

An analyst says the US terror attacks could spell the end of national airlines.

The events of September 11 have already cost the air industry 128,780 jobs.

The lay-offs have paved the way for a radical shake-up of the aviation industry, says Justin Urquhart-Stewart, of 7 Financial Management.

He said: "There are too many planes, too many airlines and not enough passengers. There was an assumption that some airlines were national institutions, whereas they are in fact commercial operations.

"It's has been a problem which has steadily built up over a period of time. The events of September 11 brought matters to a head and let the poison out."

So far, American Airlines and Continental Airlines top the league of lay-offs, with 20,000 redundancies each.

British Airways has so far cut 7,000 jobs.

Mr Urquhart-Stewart added: "In the coming months, we will see smaller capacities and possibly even an increase in air fares."