That’s a literal interpretation, but it misses the point of “Hard Landing”. The book argues that while the airlines weren’t monopolies in name, they acted like

That’s a literal interpretation, but it misses the point of “Hard Landing”. The book argues that while the airlines weren’t monopolies in name, they acted like a government-sanctioned monopoly under the Civil Aviation Board. The Airline Deregulation Act was essentially meant to break up this cartel, and was pushed through despite heavy resistance from those same airlines. They didn’t want the Civil Aeronautics Board dismantled because it protected their monopolies over routes and guaranteed income, and they feared new entrants would disrupt their control. So, while the airlines weren’t formally ‘broken up,’ the airline business, the route monopolies, and CAB were which directly led to the dissolution of companies like Eastern and Pan Am, and the creation or expansion of new entrants like Frontier, JetBlue, and Southwest which were previously prohibited from competing in these markets.