Suppose you fought tooth and nail, expending millions of dollars — just so your airline was awarded the right to fly somewhere — and then, after all this, you told the guys who had awarded you the right to do so — thanks, but no thanks?

Today Alaska Airlines, Inc., American Airlines, Inc., Continental Airlines, Inc. Delta Air Lines, Inc. Northwest Airlines, Inc., United Air Lines, Inc. and US Airways, Inc., did just that as they jointly filed a request with the Department of Transportation asking that the group be given a “temporary, blanket waiver of all dormancy conditions applicable to their frequency allocations and other limited entry international authority for a period of two years, beginning as soon as possible.”

The request also asked the DOT to establish a six-calendar-day answer period.

Got that? Six whole days. Then again, who is going to object?

Not much else to say. It’s an unprecedented move. It’s historic. And just another signal of how dire the financial situation is for the U.S. carriers.

As one of our readers noted tonight, “Looks like the ATA carriers are battening down the hatches bigtime…”

United and US Airways had already said publicly that they were going to delay their respective China route awards.

The thing that is noteworthy about this news tonight is that all the airlines are asking for a “joint” blanket waiver.

When was the last time we saw this group agree on anything?

It’s rare. And that alone says a lot in and of itself.