June 27, 2008 Surprising ceremony at Boston's Logan Airport Play video

(Peter Howe, NECN) - There was good news but bad luck. Amid a wave of airline cutbacks, Italy’s Air One launching new flights from Boston to Milan. But with thunderstorms raking New England, the plane for the first flight got diverted to Hartford, and the ribbon-cutting ceremonies delayed for hours. Still, it was extraordinary to have an airline adding service, not cutting.

“There is a strong component of Italian people leaving here in Massachusetts, so there are all the elements that fill us with confidence for the result of these new routes to Milan.”

But De Roni may be the only optimist in the airline industry these days. Two years after launching flights from Bradley International in Connecticut to Amsterdam, Northwest Airlines just announced it will end Amsterdam flights October 2. That follows a wave of cancellations in New England this month.

American is abandoning Providence and dropping flights to San Diego. JetBlue backed off plans for service to L.A. Southwest is trimming one Manchester to Chicago flight, US Airways one to Las Vegas.

Delta, meanwhile, is in full retreat from Boston, ending small-jet flights this month to four southern cities and dropping flights L.A. and Vegas later this summer.

The big picture is oil at $140 dollars a barrel and what that means for jet fuel prices. Airlines are getting killed. And the question is can they cancel flights fast enough to stay out of bankruptcy.

Midwest Airlines, which

Discount carriers like Southwest and JetBlue are doing better, but old-line carriers may face more cuts.

“There probably is some more room to cut, but a lot of it just depends on fuel costs.”

Cheapflights.com - will cheap flights still exist?

“Be as flexible as you can. Now more than ever, it's important. You still can great deals but you really need to be flexible about where you're going, where you're going from and when.”