Were The Airlines A Precursor To The Current Economic Crises?

It sure looks like the health of the airline industry was an indicator of what was to come. But was it? While I think that the airline industries problems are not helping things right now its hard to think that they are the cause of the current global problems going on. This problem has been coming on for a while now, and many economy experts were predicting it for quite some time. One thing you can bank on (pun intended) is that what is happening on Wall Street is not making things any easier for the airline industry. Watching Jim Cramer or any of the other "experts' can be a scary thing to do right now. Only thing worse than that is to open up a 401k statement. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The question, which we all want to know the answer to is just how long is that tunnel? Is it days, months or even years. My hope is that this economic problem is short lived so we can move on. I want to talk about vacations and the fun of going on them, not the woes of why people can't afford to.