In the last week, Aloha Airlines, ATA Airlines, and Skybus Airlines all shut down their passenger operations with no notice. One day they were flying, the next they were gone. Thousands of passengers were left stranded. If they called the airlines that had failed, there was no one to answer. Passengers who booked via credit card were instructed to contact their credit card companies and ask for a refund. If they could afford to buy another ticket and find a seat on the plane, another airline would have to take them home. A fourth airline, a charter operator that I’ve actually flown called Champion Air, announced that it would cease operations after May 31. The most significant of these failures is ATA’s, since it was a codeshare partner for Southwest. A customer could book a flight through Southwest from a Southwest city to Hawaii and some other good destinations that we don’t serve. We flew the customer part of the way, and then ATA took over. The arrangement made both airlines a lot of money and increased the flight options available to both airlines’ customers. But now all that is over until we find another codesharing partner. It’s a sad week in the airline business.