From Deregulation to Network Integration: The Technical, Legal, and Economic Case for a New Aviation Regulatory Code

The aviation industry is historically characterized by its focus on continuous product development in aircraft technology, and its deployment in regional air markets. Before the resulting air networks could be integrated into a seamless passenger travel system, however, a new aviation law regime – the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 – was enacted into law. This stature, which prioritized competition over cooperation, has left the air travel market far less organized than other network industries. As network economics have subsequently become better understood by computing and communication advancements, its logic is overtaking older theories of the firm, including traditional concepts of competition and antitrust law. A new aviation legal code based on network and total system integration may replace the current Deregulation Act, which only addresses airline competition, leaving out aircraft, airport, and airspace capacity management, and the resultant deadweight loss from mismatches in supply and demand. An overlooked legal precedent in American history dates from the 1903 Northern Securities case: the dissent of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and the unusual legal and economic case analysis by Christopher Columbus Langdell concerning natural monopoly and transportation economics. Fifty years later, economic core theory provided the complementary mathematical science necessary to better understand how markets actually work, and confirmed the intuitions of Langdell and Holmes. Together, these three factors – network economics, modernized antitrust jurisprudence, and economic core theory – create a three-dimensional model necessary to formulate a new aviation regulatory program designed for aviation system integration and efficiency.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/19347170
• Authors:
  • Andersson, Matthew G
• Publication Date: 2022

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 129-154
• Serial:
  • Issues in Aviation Law and Policy
  • Volume: 22
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: International Aviation Law Institute
  • ISSN: 1934-7170
  • Serial URL: https://las.depaul.edu/centers-and-institutes/chaddick-institute-for-metropolitan-development/research-and-publications/Pages/issues-aviation-law-policy.aspx

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aviation law; Competition; Industrial economics; Monopoly; Passenger transportation; Regulations
• Identifier Terms: Airline Deregulation Act of 1978
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Economics; Law; Policy;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01868739
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 28 2022 9:28AM