ABSTRACT
For the past forty years the economic regulations constraining Western Europe's air transport industry have become progressively less effective. With certain notable exceptions this situation has arisen not as a result of governments freely deciding to interpret existing policies more liberally, but rather as a consequence of pressure from consumers, factions within the industry and more recently, from the European Commission. Retrenchment best describes the overall governmental response to this onslaught. In general, European States have been reluctant to relinquish control of what have been important instruments of public policy. The major distinction between the period up to the mid 1980s and that since is that during the latter governments have had little choice but to formally acknowledge the desirability of liberalising their restrictive policies.
