Airlines have long term fuel contracts to smooth out the short term price changes, but beyond that they just pass it on to consumers. e.g. http://www.delta.com

Airlines have long term fuel contracts to smooth out the short term price changes, but beyond that they just pass it on to consumers. e.g. http://www.delta.com/business_programs_services/delta_cargo/current_surcharges/index.jsp http://www.delta.com/business_programs_services/delta_cargo/... the first column is the fuel surcharge that floats with fuel prices. The Backblaze article clearly said that paying more for drives and passing it on the customers was an option. They just found a better one. They didn't mention it, but just losing money for a while is also a reasonable option if you don't want to antagonize your customers.