I think those are some of the reasons.

The main one in ``bad Management``. One doesn`t just sit there and watch competition take away market share and not respond. They could have allocated some of their assets to new routes with lower salaried employee`s and started competing early before the low fare carriers gained a strong hold in specifics markets.

In my many years of business experience we never let any low price competitors gain enough market share to continue there business, most failed or were acquired, which was another major airline option not employed.

OZ