What is the Airline Deregulation Act?
The Airline Deregulation Act is a body of federal legislation that was signed into law in 1978 by then U.S. President Jimmy Carter. It was enacted to eliminate certain governmental controls from the commercial aviation industry. Its goals included opening up the aviation industry to competition, and opening up new opportunities for emerging airlines and secondary airports. Government regulation of the aviation industry dates back to 1938, when the Civil Aeronautics Act empowered the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA.) This federal body, created by the U.S. Congress, was assigned the task of regulating the new and emerging aviation industry. The Aviation Act of 1958 replaced the CAA with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB.) Many of the powers that the CAA had were given to CAB. These included control over interstate routes and airfares.
