ABSTRACT
It is clear that deregulation has radically altered the way in which airlines are operated and managed. That there is no certain link between the number of firms supplying a market and the degree of competition likely to be experienced has long been apparent. This feature of the economic behaviour of firms is as observable in the provision of air transport services as it is in other industries. In airline markets significant variations are apparent between the volume of passenger traffic on a route and the number of operating carriers. Routes with only one carrier exist on which passenger demand exceeds more than a million annually. Some of these apparent anomalies arise where demand is seasonal and consists predominantly of holiday traffic, and, as such, services are often concentrated at weekends. Providing a plausible justification for routes with high volumes of traffic that are supplied on a monopolistic basis is less easy.
