What does Wal-Mart have to do with US Airways’ second and perhaps final descent into bankruptcy?

No, I’m not going to tell you that the Bentonville, Ark., behemoth has secretly taken over the airline industry.

Wal-Mart doesn’t sell jetliners at its superstores or through its Web site, at least not yet. And its travel business – yes, it does have one of those – sells air tickets only as part of vacation packages.

But there’s a crucial link between Wal-Mart’s rise and US Airways’ fall. And if you’re looking at the mirror, you’re staring right at it.

US Airways is struggling because too many of us were lured away by the same thing Wal-Mart offers the consumers who in turn made it into the world’s largest corporation: a better deal.

Of course, this isn’t a simple comparison. Wal-Mart thrives in one of the most competitive business arenas, retailing. US Airways is stalled in a market that has emerged in fits and starts since U.S. airlines were deregulated a quarter-century ago.

But enough competition has taken hold in air travel for the market to do what it does best: separate winners from losers. And right now, US Airways has some pretty lousy field position.

To be fair, what happened to US Airways has also happened, one way or another, to all the so-called “legacy” airlines that dominated air travel in the days when routes and schedules were all government-approved.

Some vanished long ago. The survivors all developed hub-and-spoke route systems, and came to dominate some of the largest markets, as US Airways does Philadelphia.

That model long proved profitable, because it meant many routes were served by only one or two carriers. Studies showed that customers in dominated hubs paid a “monopoly premium,” often averaging 25 percent or more. On some flights, last-minute ticket-buyers could pay 10 times as much as leisure fliers.

Competition eventually breached this lucrative arrangement, but it didn’t come easily.

Southwest Airlines has grown steadily, fueled by its willingness to do things differently.

But many start-ups failed – perhaps with a little push from the legacy carriers, which typically responded to competition by matching fares and flooding routes with extra flights. (Flights they could then drop once the flea was snuffed.)

Still, the low-cost carriers proved and reproved the point: Consumers wanted a better deal, and many were even willing to give up large-airline perks, or drive to far-off airports, to get it.

The newer carriers didn’t just steal customers from the likes of US Airways. They created new ones, with fares that made flying an attractive alternative to driving, taking the bus or staying home.

Nor has the innovating stopped. JetBlue has grown by combining lower fares with extra amenities, such as in-flight TV. Others are riffing on the bus-in-the-sky model pioneered in the early “80s by People Express.

But all share in the better, simpler deal that Southwest epitomizes. They may not be Wal-Marts of the skies, but they’re building on the discounter concept as Wal-Mart did in retailing, and forcing change that’s hard – as a consumer – not to welcome.

If there’s a rub, that’s where it is. Because each of us, in addition to being a consumer, has other perspectives. Some things may matter more to you than getting the lowest price.

Thousands of Pennsylvanians still work for US Airways. Your friends, neighbors or relatives may be among them. You might be yourself.

The blame game has already begun. Some people point fingers at intransigent union leaders. Others respond by calling management hidebound.

Over time, the bankruptcy process will sort some of this out. If a competitive US Airways emerges, the region will welcome it, and consumers will be better off for it.

Meanwhile, I’d suggest we all point back at ourselves: at the decisions we make, and at the relentless power of competition and the marketplace.

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(c) 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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AP-NY-09-20-04 0621EDT