On October 31st Virgin fired 13 of its cabin crew who had posted derogatory comments about its safety standards and some of its passengers on a Facebook forum.

ECONOMIST: A tale of two airlines and their Facebook fiascos

Lots of comments follow to the effect that closing La Guardia would merely send myriad extra passengers to JFK and Newark airports, creating traffic snarl-ups on the roads, reducing passenger choice and perhaps exacerbating congestion in the air.

ECONOMIST: Business travel