Originally Posted by
22/04
. Compared with other countries we have so many failures.
I think compared with other (European) countries, we have had so many more airlines created as well. I can name Hunting-Clan, Independent Air Travel, Continental Air Services, Overseas Aviation, Airwork, Air Charter, British United, Cambrian, BKS, Jersey Airlines, Morton Air Services, Olley Air Services, Transair, Silver City and Starways, all from the 50s and 60s just for starters. There were some of these earlier airlines with names duplicated later as well (at least two Pegasus, Orion etc). Many of these went bust but were effectively just taken over by another airline at low cost - where do you draw the line?
To start understanding the industry, you need to go back to the 1940s and see the government attitude then, with tight regulation over everyone and preference (and subsidy) for the state owned airlines. Then you have the development of the charter industry (because there were very few non-state operated scheduled routes allowed), followed by Laker and then Branson breaking the monopoly finally with full deregulation (and the EU helped). This was then followed by the budget airlines who have basically taken over. I know of some books which touch on this subject and there must be one or two devoted to it.