Online Public Relations Thoughts

The airline industry has been in business and PR crises for several years now. One has to ask how much more can an industry take when you have incidents like this? Delta Airlines and Northwest are getting ready to file for bankruptcy. United Airlines is in bankruptcy and has dumped pensions. There doesn't seem to be an end to it until the entire industry adapts a new economic model along the lines of a Jet Blue or Southwest Airlines. The question I have is how one practices public relations in an environment where everything one does is ticking off some segment of the public?