SR-71: from what I've read about the conflicts of interest which created so-called deregulation, and the ruling favoritism, made on behalf of various parties by many numerous, some former, Dept. of Trans. Admin judges, among others (the Dept. of Justice), it might be worth seriously considering re-regulation, although in what form might be the most beneficial to stockholders and route flexibility (or should this be excluded?), who can guess? There is no doubt that marketing depts have priced the tickets too low to make any profit on most domestic routes, therefore, with decades of this policy being STANDARD, among the major airlines, and the resultant accidents which are directly related to unrestrained growth (Air Florida...Valuejet, to name just two, and with the documented help of the FAA's..eh...
"oversight", driven by political factors stemming from the White House : these are just the more notorious accidents, because passengers paid the revenue, instead of cargo customers...), nobody can convince me that US deregulation has been a success. Are stockholder profits to be the only criteria? How about a son or mother killed in a crash, in an operation where flight ops are quietly given carte blanche by the govt. inspectors, especially at higher levels where documented concerns are "allegedly" locked away?
No matter whose fault it is for the state of the industry, it appears to me that from a safety perspective and that of stability for employees and passengers, it is quite a failure. The stupid fare-wars have created the "Wal-Mart" mentality among the flying public, regarding ticket prices. Nobody deserves to buy a ticket below, or even at the operating cost to move the airline seat, and I make no apologies to Wal Mart (their benefits come partly from "allegedly" cheating many of their employees out of numerous benefits, and outsourcing production to the Pacific Rim).