Do any of you remember the glory days of the airlines before de-regulation? In the days of airline subsidies we had well paid employees, planes flying half full, our choice of seats, table cloths, and edible food in coach. There were happy smiling pilots and stewardesses (that is what we called them in those happier days). If the airline screwed up a reservation they put you up for the night in one of the better downtown hotels, and there were perhaps three dozen airlines to choose from. The TV ads were all about the Friendly Skies and featured the pilots and stewardesses walking out to the plane hand in hand as if they were just married or won the state lottery.
And then one day the Airlines were de-regulated and everyone was told that the airlines would be more competitive and consumers would be awarded with lower fares and the same wonderful service. Little did any of us business travelers know that we would be flying the unfriendly skies from there on in, and we would all witness a long period of decline as the airlines surprised us every year with creative ways to cut costs and reduce services.
The decline really accelerated when the airlines chose a new consumer strategy which I call the sardine strategy. This strategy was based on the purchases of thousands of Boeing 737s (the Sardine Liner). The idea was to fly much smaller planes and to always pack them with people by a tactic called over booking. It would insure that every seat was filled on every flight. Even though the seats were smaller and the leg room shorter they would manage to “shoe horn” every person into a seat, no matter what their size.
I vividly remember a time, sitting in the last aisle seat, when - Source
Airline Deregulation And The Beleaguered Traveler
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