>From the preface to Paul Stephen Dempsey & Andrew R. Goetz, "Airline
Dergulation Mythology" (Quorum, 1992):
--Under deregulation, the airline industry lost all of the money it made
since the Wright Brothers� inaugural flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, and $1.5
billion more.
--After more than 200 bankruptcies and 50 mergers, we now fly the oldest
and most repainted fleet of aircraft in the developed world.
--Of the 176 airlines to which deregulation gave birth, only one remains
and, as of 1992, it too was in bankruptcy.
--In 1991, fully 30 percent of the nation�s fleet capacity was in
bankruptcy or close to it.
--All the U.S. airlines together are now worth less than Japan Airlines
individually.
--Despite predictions to the contrary, deregulation has produced the
highest level of national and regional concentration in history.
--Although more people are flying than ever before, the percentage increase
in domestic airline passenger boardings was lower during the first decade
of deregulation than in every decade that preceded it.
--While most passengers now fly on a discounted ticket, the full fare has
risen sharply under deregulation, far exceeding the rate of inflation, and
the discounts are now encumbered with onerous prepurchase, nonrefundability
and Saturday-night stay-over restrictions. Today�s airline ticket is
therefore an inferior product compared to its counterpart under regulation,
which provided passengers with considerable flexibility.
--Despite allegations to the contrary, average real fuel-adjusted ticket
prices are higher than they would have been had the pre-deregulation trend
continued. Pricing has not only increased above pre-deregulation trend
levels, it has grown monstrously discriminatory.
--Industry costs increased sharply under deregulation, while the long-term
trend in productivity improvements fell flat.
--Hubbing-and-spoking, the dominant megatrend on the deregulation
landscape, has caused some air travel to regress back to the DC-3 era,
robbing aviation of its inherent advantage and people�s most precious
commodity�time.
--Business travelers lose billions of dollars in productivity as a result
of circuitous and time-consuming hub-and-spoke operations.
--Service has declined under deregulation, while consumer fraud has increased.
--Although fatality statistics do not reflect it, the margin of safety has
also declined.
--Labor-management relations have deteriorated.
--Americans now rate airlines as the industry in which they have the least
confidence.
Louis Proyect
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