Airlines

William J. McGee argues that airline deregulation in the United States has not delivered on its promised benefits of lower fares, increased safety, and more competition, but instead has led to industry consolidation, regional inequality, and degradation of passenger rights. McGee proposes a suite of policy recommendations to address these issues, including measures to expand geographic networks, increase airport access, encourage new entrants, simplify pricing, and improve passenger rights, labor, and safety standards.

A federal judge recently blocked the proposed merger of JetBlue and Spirit airlines on antitrust grounds, reversing antitrust enforcers’ recent history of waving through airline industry consolidation. However, while this decision affirms that mergers designed to reduce competition and raise prices violate antitrust law, it comes too late to undo the damage from 15 years of lax enforcement that allowed radical consolidation in the airline industry.

Would increasing regulation of the U.S. airline industry resolve the issues that Americans have heard about and experienced in the past few months? Clifford...

A major factor contributing to the industry’s struggles during the current crisis was the loss of resiliency due to the consolidation of the...

"I am in a state of shocked disbelief," former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan said during the 2008 crisis, before confessing: "I found a...

The government has to compensate businesses and workers for their losses so that each business can re-emerge almost intact after the hibernation due to...

What are airline executives really saying to each other with their extensive discussion of “capacity discipline”? New research from the University of Virginia finds...