Planning a trip? You'll be happy to know that Pan Am, American and Northwest airlines have drastically cut fares for travelers buying tickets before March 1. British Airways would like to cut transatlantic fares one-third, and TWA, USAir and Pan Am want to cut them that much or more, if the government lets them. Air carriers are offering dramatic bargains -- and not out of benevolence. They're desperate.
In 1990, their all-time worst year, the world's airlines lost a record $3.5 billion and nearly half their passenger traffic to the threat of war and the pain of recession, and they figured...