"The airline industry needs it," Michael Boyd, an airline consultant based in Evergreen, Colo., said of the price increase.

Mr. Mann, the airline consultant, said that the market had probably been underserved since only one airline controlled it.

"Once this package goes to court," said Dan Kasper, an airline consultant with Harbridge House, "everyone is welcome to make competing bids."

Mr. Miller, the airline consultant, says it has been two decades since the aviation industry faced such potential chaos.

As the airline consultant Michael Boyd notes in a list of predictions for 2003 in his current weekly newsletter (www .

The time is ripe, argues Dan Kasper, an airline consultant and former Federal regulator, for a dramatic turnaround in airline policy.

One executive who oversaw yield management for a major carrier and is now an airline consultant said the ad practice should be cleaned up but there are no cops.

"There's gold in not following the herd," said Michael Roach, an airline consultant based in London.

For example, Melvin Brenner, an airline consultant, said that at some point the industry would have to cope with recession, which could mean layoffs and cutbacks.

He added that it "will be the first of several review sessions involving myself, the Ritchie people, various airline consultants as well Shearson Lehman."