Did Passenger Fare Savings Occur After Airline Deregulation?

Abstract

This paper questions the generally held belief that there are significant passenger fare savings and increased passenger traffic growth due to airline deregulation. Unlike previous studies, passengers and passenger fares are broken into discrete distance intervals and compared to passenger and fare distributions prior to deregulation. Except for the period immediately before the terrorist attack in 2001 and continuing through 2005, there are limited, if any, demonstrable domestic system passenger fare savings. Also in contrast to other papers showing significant passenger fare benefits, virtually all data for this paper is accessible via the Internet.