Deregulation
In the mid-1970s, Alfred Kahn, an economist and deregulation advocate, became chairman of the CAB. Around the same time, a British airline began offering exceptionally inexpensive transatlantic flights, awakening a desire for U.S.-based airlines to lower their fares. These influences led to Congress passing the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, ushering in an era of unencumbered free market competition. The CAB disbanded a few years thereafter