After domestic airline pricing was deregulated on Jan. 1, 1985, the cost of unrestricted fares skyrocketed.

Congress' short-sighted and gullible deregulation of domestic airline pricing is to blame.

The hotel industry, inspired by airline pricing, is developing a system for cutting room rates during slack periods.

Until Thursday, it was an all but sacrosanct component of airline pricing.

Why round trip costs almost 40 percent less than one way is part of a larger story about the twisted nature of airline pricing.

But now, corporate travel officials say that some order has intruded on the black art of airline pricing.

After years of rising complaints, business travelers' frustration over the inequities of airline pricing has reached a point of near revolt.

The "escalation and maze of fares occurring after deregulation" showed that reregulation merited serious consideration, he said, to restore "just and reasonable" airline pricing.

"I would think the more transparent airlines are, the higher esteem in which they're held," said Mr. Morrison, who has studied airline pricing.

On Jan. 1, 1985, Federal oversight was removed from domestic airline pricing.