HALF OF ALL PASSENGERS flying around America are now sitting in airplanes operated by bankrupt airlines, flown by pilots about to see their wages and pensions cut, and served by cabin staff worrying that a pink slip awaits them when they land. These carriers are part of an industry set to lose $7.4 billion this year, reminding old timers of the joke, "Want to become a millionaire? Be a billionaire and buy an airline."

Delta (with $10 billion in losses since 2001) and Northwest joined United, US Air, and a few small carriers asking the courts to protect them from their creditors, allow them to walk away from their labor contracts, and eventually pass a portion of the obligations of their underfunded pension plans to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp (the government insurer which, ironically, itself is already underfunded to the tune of an estimated $142 billion). United has already handed a $6.6 billion bill to the PBGC; now comes Delta with an even larger, $8.4 billion tab, and Northwest, with a more modest $2.8 billion obligation. Congress, already faced with the president's request for a few hundred billion dollars to fix New Orleans, is trying to find some way to avoid adequately funding the PBGC, even if that means using some of the accounting techniques that will curl the hair of Messrs. Sarbanes and Oxley.

It is no coincidence that Delta and Northwest threw themselves into the arms of the bankruptcy court at the same time. Both were rushing to get in front of judges before the new bankruptcy law comes into force on October 17, coincidentally, the date on which Alfred Kahn, the father of airline deregulation, will be celebrating his 88th birthday.

That law will limit to 18 months the length of time a company can operate under court protection from law suits by creditors and others: United has been operating in bankruptcy since late 2002. Perhaps of even greater importance to Delta and Northwest executives, the new law will place restrictions on the bonuses executives can vote themselves while operating under court protection.

All of this is bad news for American Airlines (profitable in the second quarter) and Continental (twice bankrupt in the past), since they now find themselves competing with companies that don't have to pay their existing creditors, and will be relieved of a lot of their so-called legacy costs, including payments to retirees, and pension contributions. Southwest, AirTran and JetBlue, the low-cost carriers (LCCs), will also face tougher competition. These LCCs have been winning customers away from the old-line airlines with low fares made possible by lower wage costs and greater efficiency, and now carry one out of every three passengers on domestic flights.

Foreign carriers will feel the heat, too. British Airways chairman Martin Broughton calls the new bankrupts "the walking dead." These living corpses and the newly merged US Air / America West combine--yes, although bankrupt, US Air finalized its acquisition of America West last week--say they will drop service on unprofitable domestic routes in order to concentrate on trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific services, which should turn up competition on those still-profitable long-haul routes.