Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., thinks so, and argues that it would be a good thing for all concerned, including airlines’ customers. Certainly in a free society it should be permitted, and Jenkins avers that it’s been the source of reliable steamship operations for 150 years.

Also of note for those who think the FAA is what keeps us safe in the air: “Here’s a historical fact: The FAA’s safety function was originally and explicitly created to compensate for the effects of economic regulation, which protected carriers from the competitive consequences of accidents. Then came deregulation. There have been 15 years since the late 1920s in which passenger deaths fell to single digits or zero, 14 of them since deregulation in 1978.”