paradoxbox
"rivals tend to find a happy medium and avoid starting price wars with their rivals because it ends up hurting both companies" ...
... summarises the situation in the 1970s and 80s when fares were fixed and could be read in the back pages of the ABC.
Deregulation allowed the carriers that knew how to cut costs to go about their business unheeded. I don't think EasyJet spends too much time worrying about the future of Alitalia, nor should it.
I can now fly shorthaul for a fifth of what I paid 30 years ago. The efficient Low Cost Carriers have fleet sizes (and crew numbers) unheard of when deregulation was launched.
Are the employees of successful companies happy? I don't know but they're probably relieved that they were not laid off by a failed High Cost Carrier.