Kahn Says System Working as Planned

As passengers wrack up hours of delays, airlines over schedule their fleets and the air traffic control system melts down this summer, the architect of deregulation says the system is working exactly as intended. In an interview with USA Today, former Civil Aeronautics Board Chair Alfred Kahn said: "Isn't it wonderful! It's the market working itself out. People may get so fed up with it eventually that they'll pay more to avoid all the hassle, or choose other means of travel, or choose not to travel at all. Or they might just decide to put up with congestion as the price they pay for getting really cheap fares. But the key point is that the market decides, not a bunch of know-it-alls in Washington."
Kahn, a long-time economics professor at Cornell, also said he gloats when he boards a crowded aircraft, and sees it as the ultimate litmus test on the success of deregulation. He called the financial benefit to travelers “staggering,” estimating it to be between $5 billion and $10 billion annually. However, the newspaper quoted Dorothy Robyn, an economist at The Brattle Group, who indicated that the 745 million passengers – a record number last year – saved an estimated $20 billion.