Business | Airlines

Freedom in the air

The deregulation of Europe’s skies this month will make the air-travel industry a little less insular. But the current fashion for fragile marketing alliances is no substitute for proper global carriers

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ALMOST 20 years after America deregulated air travel and ushered in a new era of cheaper flying, Europe is taking the same flight path. From this month, any technically qualified airline in the European Union (plus Norway and Iceland) will be able to run services inside any other country. For some years, national airlines have been allowed to run international services in other European countries. But now that the last barrier to domestic services is down, the way is theoretically clear for a revolution in Europe's skies. Or is it?

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Freedom in the air”

The weakest link

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