The failure of deregulation

[asterism]

Airline costs have gone up?

When I was young and airlines were regulated, the elite flew and the great unwashed took the bus.

Now airline terminals are populated by the folks who used to ride the bus.

The Effects of US Airline Deregulation 1970 - 2010

<snip>Result 2 : Air Travel Increased

Again using round figures, there are twice as many flights and three times as many people traveling, compared to the 1970s.

To be specific, in 1978 the US airlines carried 275 million passengers. In 2009, they carried 770 million passengers. In 1969 there were 5.4 million flights, in 2009, there were 10.1 million.

In a lovely circle of positive reinforcement, lower fares encouraged more people to travel, which justified more flights, which allowed for lower fare, and for more people to travel, and so on.

Air travel, once reserved for the wealthy and elite, has been truly democratized and become freely available for all.
<snip>

Yeah, the notion that air travel is more expensive now is a whopper. It was unheard of for middle class families to fly from up north to Disney, they drove. Now most of them fly. Middle class families from Latin America taking vacations in Florida were rare, now they are so common Kissimmee has spanish only motels.

GAO: The U.S. airline industry has expanded threefold since deregulation.
Figure 2 shows that the consumption of airline travel as measured by
revenue passenger miles (RPM) grew from 188 billion RPMs in 1978 to 584
billion RPMs in 2005, while airline capacity grew at a similar pace—from
306 billion available seat miles (ASM) in 1978 to 758 billion ASMs in 2005.
Over the same period, revenue passenger enplanements8 increased from
254 million in 1978 to 670 million in 2005.

Yep:

Airfares have fallen in real terms over time while service—as measured by
industry connectivity and competitiveness—has improved slightly. Overall,
the median fare has declined almost 40 percent since 1980 as measured in
2005 dollars

The evidence suggests that reregulation of airline entry and fares would
likely reverse much of the benefits that consumers have gained and would
not save airline pensions.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06630.pdf

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Yeah, the notion that air travel is more expensive now is a whopper. It was unheard of for middle class families to fly from up north to Disney, they drove. Now most of them fly. Middle class families from Latin America taking vacations in Florida were rare, now they are so common Kissimmee has spanish only motels.

GAO: The U.S. airline industry has expanded threefold since deregulation.
Figure 2 shows that the consumption of airline travel as measured by
revenue passenger miles (RPM) grew from 188 billion RPMs in 1978 to 584
billion RPMs in 2005, while airline capacity grew at a similar pace—from
306 billion available seat miles (ASM) in 1978 to 758 billion ASMs in 2005.
Over the same period, revenue passenger enplanements8 increased from
254 million in 1978 to 670 million in 2005.

Yep:

Airfares have fallen in real terms over time while service—as measured by
industry connectivity and competitiveness—has improved slightly. Overall,
the median fare has declined almost 40 percent since 1980 as measured in
2005 dollars

The evidence suggests that reregulation of airline entry and fares would
likely reverse much of the benefits that consumers have gained and would
not save airline pensions.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06630.pdf

Do the liberals want to reregulate just airlines and health care or all industries? We all know the answer. Government is never too big for liberals. They want as much plastic surgery as Michael Jackson had for much the same reasons.