Not-so-friendly skies: Deregulation didn’t fail, it was never really tried

Anderson said that, although the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act eliminated the Civilian Aeronautics Board, the DOJ attorneys to this day use the old CAB antitrust regulations to interfere in airline mergers and acquisitions.

Marc Scribner, a research fellow at the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees, noting that President Obama’s administration aggressively pursues an antitrust agenda with the airline industry, including its initial opposition to the merge of American Airlines and US Airways.

“Despite significant economic evidence suggesting a positive result of the merger, the Justice Department is attempting to derail it in order to flex its antitrust enforcement muscles,” he said a few weeks before the government opted to allow the merger to go forward.