Source: Based on data from Air Transport World.

Passenger Plane Load Factor, 1950-2005 (in %)

Two of the four largest airlines in the US before deregulation, Eastern and TWA, no longer exist. Pan Am was another storied carrier that failed to survive the depredations of deregulation. Overall, however, the large hub-and-spoke carriers gained market share nationally until the rise of the low-cost carriers in the late 1990s.

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