, was a smart move for Delta in that they needed new direction and new ideas to chart a successful path through the highly competitive deregulated airline industry. Many people and experts think that deregulation has helped the industry and in an article from the Heritage Foundation, it is hard to argue. It states that airline ticket prices are almost 40 percent lower today than in 1978. The average fare per passenger mile was about 9 percent lower in 1994 than in 1979 at small community airports, 11 percent lower at medium-sized airports, and 8 percent lower at large community airports. From 1939 to 1978 there were an average 6 fatal accidents per year. After deregulation 1978 - 1997 the average was only 3.5 fatal accidents per year. Air carriers flew roughly 2.5 billion miles in 1978, but they logged more than twice that amount last year, and flying approximately 5.7 billion miles in 1997. The airlines served approximately 250 million passengers in 1978 and roughly 600 million in 1997. Delta has fared equally well and compare with these statistics. However, there are a few skeptics and Delta is one of the airlines that is accused of monopoly power and pricing.In an article written by Robert Kuttner in 1999, he states that the results of deregulation are mixed. He blames President Reagan's administration for letting the Anti-trust enforcement to collapse, which permitted large dominant airlines to crush upstart competitors. He goes on to say that the revival of the dormant antitrust policy is the only program that has allowed competition to even exist at all in the airline industry. Delta is used as an example in an article written by Fred Allvine of Bizjournals.com. It states that Delta's market share over the last decade has increased from about 50 percent to 78 percent of the passengers flying through the Atlanta Airport. This means that Delta can raise fares at will on a large portion of its flight. The article goes on to say that ...
