Deregulation of Domestic Passenger Air Transport Services in the United Kingdom, 1980–89: A Case Study of Northern Ireland

B J Graham
Additional contact information
B J Graham: Department of Environmental Studies, University of Ulster at Coleraine, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland

Environment and Planning C, 1990, vol. 8, issue 3, 327-346

Abstract: In the first instance, an analysis of the deregulatory aviation policies applied in the United Kingdom during the 1980s is provided. Discussion is placed within the particular context of studies of US deregulation, and their wider relevance to proposed European Community liberalisation. From these, a consensus is emerging that deregulation can succeed only if accompanied by vigorous government measures to act against merger, acquisition, and other anticompetitive devices used by existing carriers to protect their positions. Thus, in part, successful deregulation demands both airport capacity and airport competition in order to increase the number of potential routes for new-market entrants and to obviate at least some of those advantages which accrue to incumbent carriers. Because these conditions are satisfied in Northern Ireland, that region is used as a case study of the efficacy of UK domestic deregulatory policy. The analysis concludes that, given sufficient airport capacity, the increased competition between airlines and airports sponsored by deregulatory policies can have significantly positive benefits for producers in terms of increased demand. Consumers also gain on fares but particularly from enhanced frequency of services. In turn, the advantage of greater frequency is dependent upon the utilisation of a different type of domestic aircraft fleet.

Date: 1990
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c080327 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:8:y:1990:i:3:p:327-346

DOI: 10.1068/c080327

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning C
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().