October 24, 1988 marked the tenth anniversary of the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. The decade since deregulation has seen a spectacular growth in air travel. The proponents of deregulation predicted that the elimination of the Civil Aeronautics Board’s control over entry, exit, routes, and fares would lead to lower prices and more convenient service, and these predictions have been borne out in the post-deregulatory environment. But it has been suggested by some that the quantitative gains of deregulation– more flights at lower cost– have been more than offset by qualitative losses.
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