Originally Posted by
Stripe
It was not deregulation itself that cost DL its "civility". The turning point was the ill conceived purchase of Pan Am. Huge losses, followed by cutbacks, were the result. DL used to be my airline of choice for domestic service in the 80's, even though I had no status with them. But they became downright unpleasant after the early 90's.
Can you say that Pan Am was not a victim of deregulation?
From the Pan Am Wiki:
"Since the 1930s, Juan Trippe coveted domestic routes for Pan Am, and throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s the airline attempted to merge with American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, and Trans World Airlines.[citation needed]The airline was repeatedly denied permission from the Civil Aeronautics Board to operate within the United States, and Pan Am remained as an American carrier operating international routes only. When the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 became law, it contained two clauses. "Clause A" allowed domestic carriers to begin operating on international routes while "Clause B" allowed Pan Am to operate domestically.[citation needed] Only "Clause A" was put into effect as the other airlines convinced Congress that Pan Am would monopolize all U.S. air routes, though the last time Pan Am was permitted to merge with another airline was in 1950 when Pan Am was permitted to purchase American Overseas Airlines from American Airlines.[citation needed] As a result, U.S. domestic airlines began competing with Pan Am internationally."