ABSTRACT
Perceptions of how far progress had been made with liberalization of the European airline market by the delivery of the first package of reform in 1987 depended on the perspective of individuals, often determined by judgments about what might come next, by strong ideological convictions and by the weight of vested national and commercial interests. While the Commission officially dubbed the arrival of Package 1 as a ‘red letter day’, others made very different judgements about the message it sent out. Its main architect, Frederik Sorensen, admitted that it ‘may not move liberalization that far, but it is done in a reasonable way’.2 Those like Lord Bethell and his associates, who were more openly and radically opposed to the regulatory system in Europe, thought:
The December package may represent political progress to those who wish to pretend to themselves or others that something real has been achieved. For the most part it has not. The December package is cosmetic in most aspects as we predicted and publicly warned.3
