Aviation deregulation safety after

There are several possible reasons for the favorable safety performance of the aviation industry after deregulation ... 

Overall, therefore, the experience of the aviation industry suggests that economic deregulation did not have a negative impact on the overall safety record, but that safety cannot be taken for granted after deregulation. The situation is well summarized by Lauber (1988, pg. 228), who notes that the accident statistics do not demonstrate that safety has suffered under airline deregulation— but neither do they prove that there has been no impact... Vigilance, therefore, must be continuous. ... 

In examining the impact of economic deregulation on safety in the aviation industry, the literature surveyed in the previous chapter provides an excellent starting point. In particular, two books based on interviews with airline pilots, mechanics, FAA inspectors, accident investigators, and others (O Malley, 1993 Nance, 1986) provide first-hand perspectives on experiences in the aviation industry in the years after deregulation. These books serve as a useful supplement to the statistical analyses and other empirical data stunmarized in Chapter 2, and provide detailed information based on extensive interviews. 

One individual who had formerly worked at the FAA argued that maintenance practices had actually improved after deregulation, but that this improvement was in part regulatory driven. He described a cycle in which the airlines develop new maintenance practices as a result of operational experience, and those improved practices are eventually encoded in regulations. Thus, an innovation that may have begun at one or a few airlines is eventually mandated for all airlines. This respondent believed that the greater sophistication of preventive maintenance practices today had unquestionably helped the safety performance of the aviation industry. He cited corrosion as an area where such improvements had a significant impact. As a result of extensive efforts to understand the causes and effects of corrosion, the skins of a number of aircraft had been replaced for preventive maintenance purposes. 

Another concern is the potential of deregulation to create challenges to the maintenance of an effective corporate safety culture. In the aviation and rail industries, corporate culture problems affected safety in the aftermath of mergers and acquisitions, and also at some of the new entrant airlines established after deregulation. In the years after deregulation, there were also indications of pressure to under-report some types of safety problems in the railroad industry, and evidence of maintenance violations at several major airlines. In the U.K. nuclear power industry, corporate culture concerns dealt with the excessive use of contractors and the loss of corporate expertise and institutional memory. 

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