The only airline not singing the blues these days may be JetBlue Airways, according to industry leaders on the "Flying High for Years to Come" panel at the 80th Annual Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC) April 8.

The topic for the heavily attended panel in the Statler Auditorium was chosen by this year's HEC student planners because so many people fly to vacation destinations that the success of the hospitality industry is now closely linked to that of the airline industry.

A stellar panel of airline executives gave colorfully candid responses to hotel student moderator Zachary Shapiro's tough questions about the state of the industry today, in light of rising fuel costs and other woes. Dan Garton, American Airlines executive vice president, called U.S. commercial flying "a rotten, crummy business" that from the late '70s on never soared financially, even in good years.

John Riordan, Virgin Atlantic Airways vice president of customer service, concurred, noting that the cumulative profitability of the $95 billion industry has been "a net loss."

Even Professor Emeritus Alfred Kahn, introduced as the father of airline deregulation for his role as chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board under former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, guessed that "there's something about the glamour of flying and supplying flight service that drives investors wild," prompting rational people to put money in an industry with a spotty profit history.

And today? "Legacy airline costs are too high and current fuel spikes are killing us," Garton declared.

Add to those travails the inflated employee salaries and benefits negotiated during better times, work rules that promote inefficiency and Federal Aviation Administration rules that, according to Garton, "won't allow you to change a soap dish on an airplane without FAA permission," and you have an industry once again laid low, panelists said.

There are bright spots. Kahn noted that accident rates in the industry have plummeted, deregulation has saved customers close to $20 billion a year and public acceptance of air travel has never been higher. "People now fly all the time. I can't believe we're going to revise that."

And while the imminent demise of one airline or another is often in the news, "It takes a long time to kill an airline," said Paul Foley, MAIR Holdings Inc. president, CEO and director.

JetBlue CEO David Neeleman worried out loud about failures in air traffic systems' infrastructure and insufficient airport runways because of a general "not in my backyard" attitude among communities. "We need a national transportation policy to use the technology we have today," he said.

Garton worried about the continuing trend of discounting airline tickets, despite rising costs: "It makes my palms sweat when I hear you guys talking about pricing. More people are flying than ever before, fuel prices are continuing to rise. Prices could and should go up."

Foley added: "There's an old Texas expression: either raise the bridge or lower the water."

Riordan jokingly compared frequent-flier-mile programs with alcohol: "good in moderation" but leading to "irrational consumer behavior" when imbibed in excess.

And panelists agreed to disagree about whether the lowest price for an airline ticket would trump the best product value.

Some of the other events in the entirely student-run HEC extravaganza April 7-9 included a faculty and student awards recognition banquet that began with a champagne toast honoring outgoing Dean David Butler and his wife, Sandie; presentations on trends in hotel and restaurant design, the explosion in eating out and the planning behind Disney World Resort's expansion; students describing their award-winning research; mouth-watering food events, including a dinner prepared under the direction of chef Michael Stroot of the Golden Door Spa in Escondido, Calif.; and a silent auction in which HEC's 300 or so guests -- among them top hospitality industry executives -- bid for such unusual prizes as the opportunity to be a chef for a night at the Hot Truck, the van that served late night snacks to Cornell students for decades. The beneficiaries: Windows of Hope, a charity that assists families of World Trade Center restaurant victims.