I have this friend named Joe Brancatelli. Known him since the early seventies, I have. Joe has always been a reporter and back then he covered the comic book industry, such as it was. Nowadays, he covers the travel industry — the airlines, mainly. I've been reading him for a long time and I've never seen him not know what he was talking about. He can tell you why United Airlines sucks. He can tell you why Southwest Airlines is making money. He can even tell you why airlines are losing money when they charge you for checked luggage.
In this new article, he explains how the utter mismanagement of the big airlines continues unabated and why small carriers are showing some profits. I don't know the business that well but I'll bet you he's right.
Joe runs a for-pay website for travellers called Joe Sent Me, which is valuable, especially if you fly a lot on business. But I've been lax in linking to the freely-available pieces he authors so consider this a kind of "catching-up" posting. And if I forget again, go seek out his articles on your own. They're very informative.