"Chasing the Youth Travel Market: Airline Executives and the Civil Aeronautics Board"

The central problem of the airline industry in the 1960s and 1970s was simple: too many seats, not enough passengers. In an era when airline travel was extremely expensive, airline executives scrambled to fill seats on their new jets and jumbo jets. One obvious solution was lowering fares, but airlines couldn't adjust their fares without the explicit permission of the Civil Aeronautics Board. The Board, established to prevent the industry from engaging in a dangerous race to the bottom, had traditionally been wary of lower prices. However, by the late 1960s, airline executives warned of looming financial disaster given all the money they’d invested buying planes that no one was flying. They fought for the ability to experiment with special fares for certain times, certain services, and certain passengers that would attract more traffic and help the airlines’ bottom line. These arguments based in financial need persuaded the Board to change its historically conservative approach. In the two decades before deregulation, airlines experimented with discounted excursion fares, off-peak fares, “Discover America” fares, family fares, military furlough fares, and youth fares. Airlines particularly targeted teens and young adults, a market that was large, growing, and flush with discretionary income. These promotional fares were remarkably successful in inducing many Americans to travel by air, and transitioning air travel from an elite activity to a mass market one.