Originally Posted by R1830toIAE2500

I disagree with your assertion that deregulation helped the airline industry.

Passenger enplanements started increasing significantly in 1960, approximately coinciding with the aging of the "baby boomer" generation. I'm sure some of todays travelers use the airlines rather than Grey Hound or Amtrack, because of the lower fares, but by no means would 50% of the flying public be grounded in a return to a regulated environment.

What we have in the deregulated environment are;
1. Lousy service. Reduced seat pitch, no meals...
2. Numerous fares for the same flight, depending on when or how the ticket
was purchased. Minimum overnight stays, required weekend layovers etc...
3. Fees for changing or cancelling a flight.
4. Hub and Spoke Fortress hubs, thus allowing one airline to "control" an
airport.
5. Numerous airlines operating under bankruptcy protection.
6. Steady downward trend in employee pay.
7. Loss of employee retirement programs.
8. Approximately 160 airlines have gone out of business since deregulation.
If each of these failed airlines had 800 employees, that results in a job
loss of 128,000. How is this better than the loss of "tens of thousands
of jobs" you claim a return to regulation of the industry would cause?
9. An industry that is projected to lose 7.5 BILLION dollars in 2005 alone.

In my opinion, deregulation is destroying the airline industry. What we have, as evidenced by the turmoil of the previous 27 years, is an industry with a never ending supply of start up carriers, undercutting the established carriers, resulting in downward pressure on costs. The established carriers can't match the start ups cost structure, and eventually fail. And the cycle continues...