INTRODUCTION

Bush examines airline competition, which was stunted by legal developments and a quest to capture efficiencies. With respect to the former, regulation severely limits the operation of foreign carriers within the United States to only single endpoints, precluding the operation of intracountry routes. In addition, air carriers made arrangements with one another to operate end-to-end connections between US destinations and foreign destinations. These alliances allowed for the amassing of international traffic from the United States and other countries but limited competition within the United States. To some degree, the formation of alliances also limited the potential for competition between carriers that could provide service on international routes. Instead, alliance competition is the norm on international routes, and many of these alliances are immunized from antitrust scrutiny.