Originally Posted by
MJMLBBtoCPH
Is part of the failure behind a lack of new start-up airlines due to the draconian regulatory environment of the federal government, or is there some other explanation? Maybe/hopefully Onejet will come to my city soon?
Actually you would make a more convincing argument that the lack of new airlines is due to insufficient government regulation.
In addition to the obvious access to lots of capital, any new startup airline would have to first consider barriers to entry, and first on that list would be entrenched competition - competition that has virtual strangleholds on major and not-so-major airports in terms of gates and routes, competition that has consolidated market power over the past decades thanks to the federal government allowing merger after merger.
Ignoring the critical component of safety, for the moment, if the federal government suddenly lifted all regulation of the airline industry, you'd very quickly end up in a world with one or two airlines in the US, massive price collusion, and zero effective competition.