Originally Posted by wheresmyplane

I've thought about this before, and I could be wrong, (it's happened once or twice), but isn't a big part of the problem that airline A won't raise it's rates because if they did then airline B would still be charging a lower rate, claiming all the flying public for itself, and Airline A would soon be in a worse positon than it is now? It seems that the solution to this would be reregulation. Certain carriers fly to certain destinations and that's it. If you want to go to LAX, you take airline A. If you want to fly to MIA, you can take airline B. If you don't like what they're charging, you can go to Avis. Wasn't deregulation what opened the door for the regionals to fly mainline routes in the first place? I'm a furloughed Comair guy and I can see that. The "golden age of flying" we keep hearing about took place largely during regulation, didn't it? It's been made abundantly clear that the airline industry is not able or willing to pass it's expenses on to the public like almost every other industry does (the price of gas goes up, milk costs more). Instead, they pass the effects of their cost on to the employees: pilots, flight attendants, ramp/gate agents, etc. That's no way to run a business. I could be wrong. If I am please correct me. I don't want to be wandering around without getting my story straight.