The government can not have the direct say on a minimum a company can charge if we want to live in a free market society, it can not happen.

Again, if they want to determine prices they will have to re-regulate the industry and then the free market is gone. What the government can do is raise safety standards across the board and this will force all airlines to raise fares to cope with the costs, the ones that do not will fail. This is a way the government can manipulate the market without destroying the free market aspect of it.

As much as I want more pay for us all I do not want it at this cost. Letting the government control business practices pushes us towards a quasi-socialist state where the government may not control business outright but can control what it does.