What a short, strange trip it has been. Or, in the case of people trying to fly American Airlines last week, it wasn’t so much short as long, and not so much trip as not going anywhere.

Yesterday comes news that Northwest and Delta are once again merging. (Serious this time!) Also, they want to use the Delta name, as Delta’s bigger, effectively depriving wisenheimers everywhere from saying clever things like Northworst. (Sad.)

Will the drama ever cease? Doubtful, say sources. Current scuttlebutt includes: How long can Virgin America — which many readers still say they haven’t heard much about or flown — last, even if it did just receive $100 million in funding; will anyone fly American anymore (me, international only – that’s been my policy for a few years now) and isn’t it time for the NWA/Delta pilots to stop obstructing. Oh and also: What of all the airlines that are, heh-heh, flying under the radar right now. Could, say, Spirit be in trouble, maybe?

Gossip, schmossip, though: There are enough cold, hard facts out there that make one wonder just how drastically different the domestic airline picture will look in a few months’ time. Have a look at this little April Surprise timeline I have put together:

4/2 After withdrawing from the New York market months earlier, ATA Airlines files for Chapter 11 and shutters immediately.

4/5 Columbus-based Skybus, a sort of JetBlue for the Midwest, ceases operations, citing rising fuel costs and a downturn in the market.

4/8 American cancels the first of what will eventually be thousands of flights. (Okay, its not a bankruptcy or a merger, but it is incredible drama.)

4/10 Frontier Airlines files for Chapter 11, resolves to continue flying.

4/14 News of Delta-Northwest talks resuming comes out by way of letter from NWA honcho.

Mergers and disappearing acts – what do they mean for airfares? Good question. They should probably go higher, says George Hobica over at Airfare Watchdog. In a blog post from last night, Hobica says that even if airfares do go up as much as 50 percent on a smaller playing field, they will still be ridiculously low if you adjust for inflation.

Hobica writes: “Thirty years ago, when I was a graduate student in England, I flew trans-Atlantic on British Airways during semester breaks for $198 round-trip. We still sometimes see fares that low across the Atlantic, at least in the dead of winter. Adjusted for inflation, it’s like paying $29 each way. Probably less. No wonder flight attendants are on food stamps.”

Food (stamps) for thought.