• TripplerTravel.com Founder Terry Trippler noted that passengers rarely pay for the full cost of serving small markets. That may be so, but it ignores airport complaints about the high price of flying out of such markets at Norfolk, Va. and Albany, N.Y. which primes the market for leakage to less expensive alternatives even if they are hours away by car. That may be ameliorated by the high price of fuel, however, as passengers weigh the cost of fuel and parking to get to the alternative airport against the high ticket prices. But that may not be enough to get them to use local facilities since most passengers do not count mileage costs which the federal government now puts at 56 cents.

• While seven bills aimed at fuel speculation may be making their way through Congress, and airline execs forming an anti-oil speculation coalition, it could be the legislators are trying to look as if they are doing something rather than nothing. But they are not alone, according to The Economist, which also cited actions in Italy and Austria which wants the European Union to impose a tax on speculation. “Some claim that oil producers are in effect hoarding oil below the ground,” said the publication, which characterized the current focus on oil as a fad. “But there is little sign of that, either among companies or countries: all big exporters bar Saudi Arabia are pumping as fast as they can.” The magazine went on to defend the markets. “Despite their dismal reputation, the oil speculators provide a vital service,” it said. “They help airlines and other big oil consumers to hedge against rising prices, and so to reduce risk – a massive boon amid the economic turmoil. By the same token, they provide oil producers with more predictable future revenues, and so allow them to expand more confidently and borrow more cheaply. That, in turn, should help to lower the price of oil in the long run. Any attempt to curtail speculation, by contrast, is likely to make life harder for firms and oil more expensive.”