MrMan

What is not mentioned in the great discussions above is the effect on the industry that government intervention has had by not letting the inefficient airlines to go bankrupt, thus allowing for reduced capacity that is needed, allowing for a better product for the consumer (Darwanism) and most likely allowing for more long term employment in the industry as a whole as the efficeint would expand. Deregulation has been a boom to both the consumer and employees. There would not be near the number of industry employees on the payroll or the growth of the airlines if deregulation had not occurred. But as the Easterns, Braniffs and other inefficients were allowed to go away in the past, the current crop were not and this has caused a drag on the industry as a whole.