Former High Fliers Fall With Deregulation

Re “High Price for Deregulation,” Commentary, Dec. 8: I’m old enough to remember air travel before deregulation. Back then, one airline’s ad campaign said, “Getting there is half the fun.” After deregulation, civilian air travel slowly became more and more like ancient Chinese water torture, or the famous “death by a thousand cuts.” And while on the subject, it would be well to remember the other fruits of deregulation, i.e., the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s and the power blackouts and skyrocketing energy costs after the electric and gas utilities were deregulated. And we mustn’t forget the piece de resistance -- the deregulation of the banking industry in 1996. The chickens still haven’t come home to roost on that.

Tom Farrell

San Gabriel

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Back in the ‘60s, when the airline ticket prices were controlled by the Civil Aeronautics Board, I can’t remember any major airline going broke. Since then we’ve lost Pan American World Airways, TWA, Eastern and others. Now our largest, United Airlines, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (Dec. 10). Airline price wars have made most of them unprofitable, to the detriment of our safety, not to mention the losses in stockholders’ value. Perhaps deregulation is not such a good idea after all, especially when it comes to passenger safety.

Eddy Hill

Sherman Oaks