This was a grim week for aviation in general and the US industry in particular.
The skyrocketing price of fuel led to unprecedented warnings of gloom. Three more North American carriers announced significant cuts in their operations. So did one European carrier.
The question of whether European aviation will go down the same path now seems more a question of when rather than if.
It was the survey by Airlines Forecasts LLC and the Business Travel Coalition (BTC) - glumly titled "Oil Prices and the Looming U.S. Aviation Industry Catastrophe"- which set the tone for the week.
It bluntly warned that the US industry was in "full blown crisis and heading toward a catastrophe."
Fuel at $130 per barrel will cost the US industry $30bn this year. Yet the carriers will bring in only $4bm from fare rises and extra charges, like fees for checking-in luggage.
This leaves a considerable shortfall of $26bn.
The conclusion, says Airlines Forecasts/BTC is that airlines will fail to meet their obligations to creditors.
"The implication of this alarming trend is that several large and small airlines will ultimately end up in bankruptcy, and of those, some will be forced to liquidate," it says.
It predicts that industry fares will have to rise "at least 20% across the board…just to cover the dramatic gap-up in fuel costs from 2007."
It says this is not possible "given the level of uneconomic seat capacity in the system today."
So too much capacity stops carriers raising their prices to make them going concerns.
But there is a secondary affect of higher fares, the report says, "less traffic" that is fewer passengers.
So they must cut capacity by 15-20%. Even then, the report says, there is "no guarantee" that smaller, more expensive carriers will be successful.
While the report discusses the economic implications for the American economy – it predicts there could be a loss of up to 85,000 jobs directly connected to the industry - there are no predictions on the impact this might have on business travel.
This might come both in fares which are regarded as too high or a shortage or even absence of flights to desired destinations.
To cope with this devastating scenario, a growing number of US carriers has already cut capacity, scrapped aircraft, warned on job cuts and introduced new fees and charges, notably for checking- in even a single item of baggage.
Three more carriers, US Airways, Northwest Airlines and Air Canada followed all or part of this route this week.
In Europe such announcements are also gathering pace. BA has already said it will cut winter capacity while Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chairman and ceo of Air France KLM, has warned the cost of oil will hit profits.
Steve Ridgway, ceo of Virgin Atlantic, said he had so far not made any decisions on cuts but added: "The acid test will come in the winter and the autumn. We aren't going to be immune to this."
Finnair said this week it would cut capacity and is looking for about 500 redundancies.Austrian Airlines is looking for a strategic partner and the all business class carriers like Eos Airlines and Silverjet have gone out of business. This is all against a background of European airlines regularly announcing increases in their fuel surcharges. There were three this week.
Lufthansa which was among those which raised fuel surcharges, is one of the few carreirs which has sai dit is no tecpectignto make capacity cuts.
But more industry experts believe that what is happening in North America will happen here, including major cuts and the imposition of fees for checking in luggage.
Frédéric Camus, Carlson Wagonlit Travel's vp supplier management EMEA, told BTE this week: "Carlson and other travel agents are wondering which airlines will still be operating in six months time. Even the healthiest have concerns, starting with Air France KLM.
"What is happening in the US will happen here, like charges for the first piece of luggage, for a window seat and for other services."
Things are likely to stay quiet during the summer holiday period. But that could just be the calm before the storm. The autumn and winter could bring major changes in the European aviation industry.