This volume is a collection of 17 papers selected from David Starkie's extensive writings over the last 25 years. Previously published material has been extensively edited and adapted and combined with new material, published here for the first time. The book is divided into five sections, each featuring an original overview chapter, to better establish the background and also explain the papers' wider significance including, wherever appropriate, their relevance to current policy issues. These papers have been selected to illustrate a significant theme that has been relatively neglected thus far in both aviation and industrial economics: the role of the market and its interplay with the development of economic policy in the context of a dynamic but partly price regulated industry. The result provides a strong flavour of how market mechanisms, and particularly competition, can operate to successfully resolve policy issues.

Commercial aviation was one of the first industries affected by the controversial regulatory reforms that began in the 1970s. Beginning in 1975, administrative reforms of the Civil Aeronautics Board gave carriers greater freedom in discounting prices and serving new markets. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 removed restrictions on entry, pricing, and routes. Still unresolved in policy and practice, however, is the question of the appropriate role of government. In the interest of informing the public debate about deregulation, the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board convened a committee of 15 experts to review air passenger service and safety since deregulation. The findings of the committee and its recommendations are presented in this report.