The Canadian Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by top airlines Air Canada and WestJet after the two objected to a January 2008 decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) entitling oversized passengers to two airline seats for a single price. The court ruled that the airlines failed to prove that a "one-person, one-fare" policy would cause them undue hardship.

The recent troubles at Italian carrier Alitalia clearly demonstrate the extreme volatility of the airline industry. When faced with imminent travel on a troubled carrier, it's best to be prepared with a plan "B" or even "C". But how can you even guess the coming of an airline's demise?

After fuel prices spiked, fees were implemented for everything from checked baggage to pillows and blankets. These were the predictable outcomes of recent airline turmoil. Some results, however, were not expected.

Adjust prices, purge the excess, merge with rivals and defend your turf at all cost – these are today's airline survival tactics we call the new root structure. The first part of our series looked at the purging and merging within the industry that may leave us with fewer, but leaner airlines. This segment will focus on the latest ways airlines are defending their business and how they see ancillary fees as a way to survive, if not prevail.

We're going to give an old airline term a different twist: root structure. It's not a reference to where an airline flies; it's an emerging business model in which an airline entrenches itself – deeply – in tactics designed to ensure survival, at a minimum, and promote prosperity by whatever means necessary. How the airlines are implementing this root structure has many airline customers wondering about what's to come and how they can prepare. In this segment we will look at two airline tactics – purging and merging.

The European Union has approved the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by imposing a buy and trade system for airlines taking off and landing at EU airports. The ruling will include non-European carriers. This has most airlines up in arms, warning that higher fares may result.

We saw the drama unfold earlier this year as record fuel prices bankrupted several carriers and put many others in critical financial condition. To avoid catastrophic losses, airlines began the equivalent of looking under the furniture cushions for extra coins. They found plenty and introduced a wide variety of add-on fees, including fuel surcharges. The price of fuel is dramatically lower but the fees are here to stay, and the one charge that literally bears the word fuel is having less to do with the price of oil and more to do with making up for lost time – and revenue.

From time to time we get requests from members to publish a list of airlines that permit cell phone voice calls during flight. Unlike airline performance statistics and rankings, this type of information is not readily available from a single source, since very few airlines have actually implemented such a policy. So what airlines have considered, tested or implemented the use of cell phones in flight?