[quote=The Juice;633354] 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.

I bet ya this is what will happen in the near future. equally plausible would be a modification of duty time regs, resulting in pilots flying even less, thus making less money. Wages may have to be raised to attract new hires or prevent atrition.