SkyBus not done quite yet, might fly again

[PCL_128]

The only thing JC ever did right in his life was signing the deregulation bill. Before that, very few people flew. Since, it has tripled. The market decides who makes it and who doesn't. Not government.

Carter was an abject failure in everything he did, and deregulation was no exception. Air travel didn't grow because of deregulation, it grew because of a rapidly expanding economy during the 80s and 90s. It would have still happened if we would have stayed regulated, but the industry would be a hell of a lot more stable. Deregulation is a failed experiment. Time to go back to what works.

 

[inline]

Carter was an abject failure in everything he did, and deregulation was no exception. Air travel didn't grow because of deregulation, it grew because of a rapidly expanding economy during the 80s and 90s. It would have still happened if we would have stayed regulated, but the industry would be a hell of a lot more stable. Deregulation is a failed experiment. Time to go back to what works.

Wrong. Deregulation works. Even the socialist Europeans have largely deregulated. The instability is largely caused by fuel spikes, I don't know how regulating the industry is going to change that.

 

[PCL_128]

Regulating the industry will provide fare controls and subsidies to allow the airlines to remain profitable during these ridiculous fuel price spikes. In other words, the costs would get passed on to the consumer like they should be.

Deregulation has been a nightmare. End it now!

 

[TWA]

I heard that skybus was paying $3.69/gal for Jet-A out of CMH. Sounds like they had absolutely no idea what they were doing when it came to fuel (or anything else, for that matter).

 

[GogglesPisano]

Deregulation has been a nightmare. End it now!

I'd bet most economists would argue the opposite. Fares have come down drastically since deregulation and more people are flying than ever before. The public has benefited -- labor has not. Who do you think the public feels is more important?

One may argue that service is much worse, but the public values price over service -- as indicated by the market.

Plus, there are far more flying jobs now than there were during regulation, when getting a job at a major was a longshot and depended on which squadron you flew for. Albeit, the pay has come down drastically as well.

 

[PCL_128]

Those are common misconceptions about this issue. Fares have come down slightly, but not dramatically. The big fare cuts that were promised with deregulation never became a reality. Instead, minor fare decreases happened slowly over three decades while the quality and reliability of the product took a huge nosedive. The consumer has been screwed monumentally in this deal.

As to the growth of the industry, that isn't due to deregulation, it was due to the massive economic growth of the overall economy during the '80s and '90s. Even without deregulation, the industry would still have grown to its current size, possibly larger. The difference is that quality and reliability would be a lot better, and the employees wouldn't have been raped.

 

[Publishers]

Whoever thinks fares have not dropped is not looking. It is like saying Southwest has had no effect on air transportation. If you factor for inflation, look at the communities that retained service or increased, on just about any level, the passenger gained. Has service levels declined, or, has the passenger indicated they want to get from A to B and do not care about the incidentals. Is flying as romantic, is the silver haired pilot still treated like a king, no. Are even astronauts thought of the way they were, probalby not. But if you want to fly from Columbus to Chicago today, you are paying much less than before deregulation even without adjusting the numbers for inflation.
To say that the airline world would have grown to this size or larger in the regulated world because we have an excellent economy is totally BS. If anything, it is the other way around. The economy grew as people could travel more reasonably and the world shrunk from an economic point of view.

 

[asaflyer]

Regulating the industry will provide fare controls and subsidies to allow the airlines to remain profitable during these ridiculous fuel price spikes. In other words, the costs would get passed on to the consumer like they should be.

Deregulation has been a nightmare. End it now!

He's a communist. Come on guys, let's get him!!

 

[IronCityBlue]

Carter was an abject failure in everything he did, and deregulation was no exception. Air travel didn't grow because of deregulation, it grew because of a rapidly expanding economy during the 80s and 90s. It would have still happened if we would have stayed regulated, but the industry would be a hell of a lot more stable. Deregulation is a failed experiment. Time to go back to what works.

Easy on Carter. He gave us "right on red". :erm:

 

[macdu]

First I feel bad for anyone to lose your job. I know how bad it felt when Independence closed down so for all the Skybus employees I wish you the best.

Sorry, not me. I will forgive a lot of indiscretions but going to work for a company such as Skybus that was clearly a direct assault on every other pilots job currently out there was just unconscionable. This goes for the F/A's too. These men and women who whored themselves out to work at this place were looking at the rest of the industry workers you and me, and flipping us all off. I sincerely feel they got what they deserve. Best of all they will be looking for jobs now were you and I work, especially if you fly Airbuses. Thank goodness we are not hiring.