COST CUTTING NEITHER IMPLIES NOR IS IMPLIED BY EFFICIENCY GAINS. Case in point: snarled air service all over this land.

Airlines have culled airplanes from their fleets and cut capacity during the past two years to reduce costs and better match supply to demand that collapsed during the recession. As a result, carriers have few spare planes to put into service. The volume of holiday travel poses an additional obstacle.

Translation: there's barely sufficient capacity for normal service, and planes that would be scheduled for maintenance at weekends in order to be available for the business travel peaks are in the shop. Mix in Corporate America's love for labor-substitution in the form of voice mail and long waits on hold and everything breaks down.

"Many flights during the holiday are at 100 percent load factor," David Swierenga, president of aviation consultant AeroEcon in Round Rock, Texas, said of the average number of occupied seats. "This means the airlines' ability to accommodate travelers from canceled flights is greatly diminished."

More precisely, further diminished. The cost reductions and downsizing has made the air carriers more profitable, but it appears to be the profitability of restricted output and enhanced prices.