- published: 18 Feb 2013
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Airline deregulation is the process of removing governmental imposed entry and price restrictions on airlines affecting, in particular, the carriers permitted to serve specific routes. In the United States, the term usually applies to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. A new form of regulation has been developed to some extent to deal with problems such as the allocation of the limited number of slots available at airports.
Airline services were historically heavily regulated, in part because of concerns about monopoly and oligopoly arising from the fact that in most cases, only a small number of airlines provided direct flights between a given "city pair".
In the U.S., the airline deregulation began in 1978. It was a part of a sweeping reduction in price and entry controls in United States transportation begun with initiatives in the Nixon Administration, carried out through the Ford and Carter Administrations, and followed up on in the Reagan Administration.
Many other countries have since deregulated their domestic markets,[citation needed] and a similar process has applied to airline markets within the European Union. Many international airline markets remain subject to regulation.[citation needed]