Almost 117 million passengers flew on Europe's low cost airlines in 2006. This statistic would have seemed beyond belief in the mid-1980s when air transport was a heavily regulated sphere. This book examines the deregulation which has taken place since then and in particular looks at the single most important reprurcussion of the deregulation of Europe's skies - the rise of the low cost airline. Sean Barret has been involved in the debates surrounding this right from the start and is well placed to provide a scholarly study of the issue. The book spends much time looking at the success of Ryanair in this period - this provides the perfect case study given the dominant role that the company has taken up over recent years.

Sean Barrett is Senior Lecturer in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Preface; Regulating Europe's Skies 1. The Defeat of Regulatory Capture 2. A Europe of National Airlines 3. Deregulating the Dublin-London Route 4. Ryanair's Market Entry 5. The Sustainability of the Ryanair Model 6. The New Entrant Full-Service Airline 7. Commercialising a National Airline 8. Airport Competition- Low Cost Airlines and Low Cost Airports 9. Regulating and Dismantling a National Airport Monopoly - a Case Study 10. A Sector Transformed