With the price of a barrel of crude oil hovering around the $70 mark, airlines have begun grasping solutions to what has become the most significant problem facing the industry today.

The topic was a recurring theme of this week's Aviation Forecast Conference conducted by the Boyd Group, Evergreen, Colo.

"If not for higher prices for go-juice, most airlines would be profitable this year," said Boyd Group President Mike Boyd, who monitors the industry as a consultant for airlines and airports.

Instead, carriers such as Delta Air Lines and Northwest have made trips to Bankruptcy Court and United, which filed for Chapter 11 protection nearly three years ago, is still struggling to emerge, but plans to do so early next year.

Even Southwest Airlines, which has an unsurpassed record of profitability as an airline, is struggling this year and has only been successful thanks to a fuel-cost hedging program it instituted years ago.

The health of the airline industry is critical to Las Vegas, which depends on it to deliver nearly half the tourists who visit for work or pleasure.

John Armbrust, president of the Armbrust Aviation Group and publisher of the Jet Fuel Report, which monitors fuel issues, said airlines have spent $10 billion more in 2005 than they originally expected to pay thanks to a wide variety of factors that have resulted in record-high pump prices.

In the second quarter, Northwest and Delta said the cost of fuel has risen 58 percent over 2004 levels while Continental said costs are up 49 percent, American 47 percent and United, 38 percent.

Southwest's fuel costs are 7 percent higher than anticipated.

Some airlines have resorted to sporadic flight cancellations to lessen the impact. Others have instituted fuel-savings programs, including policies to taxi on one engine and tankering fuel to get the best possible price and to avoid shortages that have occurred at several airports, including McCarran International.

It's a good thing, Armbrust said: He expects the price of fuel to decline slightly later this year before heading back to current levels due to a variety of supply and demand issues.

Now, several airlines are following Southwest's lead and beginning their own fuel hedging programs.

If it hedges, an airline contracts to buy fuel at a specific price and pays in advance. It can be risky proposition, since the volatile nature of the fuel industry results in wild swings in price. So far, Southwest has bet correctly most of the time and it has paid off for the airline's bottom line.

Some airlines say they don't take hedge positions because they can't afford paying upfront. But Armbrust maintains that airlines can't afford not to take the risk these days.

"When they had cash to hedge, they did all these things that they thought were more important at the time," he said.

Armbrust said at the three-day conference that he is aware of seven airlines that have various hedge positions with prices that should have varying degrees of impact on profitability.

Southwest, McCarran's busiest carrier, has 85 percent of its costs hedged at $26 a barrel in 2005, 65 percent at $32 in 2006 and 45 percent at $31 for 2007.

US Airways, the No. 2 carrier at McCarran, recently instituted its own program and as a result didn't get near the price advantages. It has 50 percent hedged at $55 for 2005 and 12 percent at $60 in 2006.

Alaska Airlines, a discount carrier with a minor presence at McCarran, is the only other airline with hedges extending three years, with 50 percent at $30 in 2005, 43 percent at $40 in 2006 and 20 percent at $45 in 2007.

Others have hedge positions in place for 2005 only, with JetBlue at 22 percent at $30, Frontier at 17 percent at $51, American at 6 percent at $40 and Northwest at 6 percent at $42.

Armbrust said most airline executives have a hard time convincing their boards of directors to take hedge positions because they'd pay more for fuel if the price should come down.

"I've talked to CEOs who say they go to their boards to present hedge proposals and the response has been, 'Why don't you just take $250 million out to Vegas and bet it?' " he said.

But the attitude seems to be changing, especially since foreign carriers have hedged fuel for years.

Speaking to an audience comprised primarily of airport managers, Armbrust said airports should get back into the fuel industry. After deregulation in 1978, several airports got out of the fuel business and the industry now has been fractured so that different companies operate refineries, pipelines, trucks and storage facilities.

Each element has its own problems and issues, from supply disruptions from overseas nations in the Middle East and Venezuela, to refinery problems in hurricane-prone regions of the United States and environmentally sensitive locations in the West, to pipeline capacity problems -- one of the big issues that faces Las Vegas.

Clark County officials already have recognized the need for additional pipeline capacity and a comprehensive effort to develop solutions is being coordinated by County Commissioner Rory Reid, County Manager Thom Reilly and Randy Walker, director of the Department of Aviation.

Las Vegas isn't the only market in which chronic fuel shortages occur as a result of a variety of issues. Armbrust said during the summer, airports were within days of running out of fuel in Washington, D.C., Orlando, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, in addition to Las Vegas.

"We heard of one instance in which a plane bound for Europe took off from Orlando and had to make a refueling stop in Boston," he said. "That had to have been a pretty expensive proposition."

Richard N. Velotta covers tourism for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4061 or by e-mail at velotta@lasvegassun.com.