AAAE held its Energy/Air Services Summit in Washington yesterday, and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) spoke about his push to close the so-called speculative loophole that he thinks is responsible for the rise in oil prices. You can read my story in Aviation Daily here (subscribers only).

The U.S. airline industry has been focused on this issue for quite some time, and they've recently stepped up their push to get Congress to change the rules for oil markets. We can get into that debate some other time, but suffice it to say that most economists say "What speculators?" when asked about the airlines' arguments.

The conference underscored for me, though, how critical this issue is for airports. Columbus, Ohio, for example, lost a good chunk of its airline service when SkyBus went under earlier this year. Airports like Columbus and Toledo are seeing service shrink as airlines cut capacity to try to survive today's stratospheric oil prices.

Yet not all airports are buying the airlines' argument. Ben DeCosta, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, gave voice to something that perhaps more than a few people were thinking. Speaking about airlines struggle with oil prices, he said "Maybe it's time for companies that can't do business to go out of business."