The Hindu Business Line : Nasdaq to delist US Airways

The shares of US Airways dropped 26 per cent to 80 cents a share in trading on Wednesday. The nation's seventh largest carrier filed for bankruptcy in a Virginia court on Sunday, the second time in two years.

US Airways has also not made the $ 110-million payment to pension plans for its machinists and flight attendants as mandated by federal laws. A hearing on the issue has been scheduled for next month in a bankruptcy court.

Industry analysts are painting a rather bleak prospect for the airline to come out of the mess this time around and many are saying that liquidation is a very real possibility.

In fact the strong advice to consumers is that if they are holding on to the airlines' frequent flyer programme to unload the miles, and as fast as it can be. The reason is that while in the past other airlines have accommodated frequent flier programmes of those carriers that had gone under or were in trouble, this time around not one single carrier is in a position to assume the liabilities of US Airways; and millions of miles are in the frequent awards.

There is a political dimension to the goings on and one related to whether a passenger can still buy a ticket with US Airways and hope for the travel to be completed. The impression is that it would be safe for customers until November 2, to buy tickets on US Airways.