Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 106 Part 6.djvu/333

 PUBLIC LAW 102-581—OCT. 31, 1992 106 STAT. 4891 together with an assessment of the threat posed to aviation safety by the location of solid waste facilities near airport runways. The report shall include recommendations concerning the construction of new solid waste facilities and the expansion of existing facilities within a 5-mile radius of an airport runway. SEC. 204. NATIONAL COMMISSION TO PROMOTE A STRONG AND 49 USC app. COMPETITIVE AIRLINE INDUSTRY. 1371 note. (a) FINDINGS. — Congress finds the following: (1) The Nation's airlines must be part of an intermodal transportation system that will move people and goods in the fastest, most efficient manner. (2) The Nation's airlines provide our connections with the global economy. A strong airline industry is essential to our Nation's ability to compete in the international marketplace. (3) The Nation's airlines are in a state of financial distress, having lost more than $6,000,000,000 in 1990 and 1991. These losses threaten the ability of our airlines to accommodate the growing aviation traffic demands of the 1990's which threaten to undermine our Nation's ability to compete in the global economy. (4) Because of the airline industr/s financial distress and the absence of government policies to promote competition, there has been a precipitous decline in the number of major airlines. Of the 22 airlines which entered the industry following ^ airline deregulation, only 2 are now operating. The rest have either gone out of business or merged with other carriers. (5) Concentration in the airline industry has advanced rapidly in the past few years. The top 4 m^or airlines now control 67 percent of aviation traf!ic and the top 7 airlines now control 91 percent of aviation traffic. Three major airlines, carrying 19 percent of aviation traffic, are in chapter 11 bankruptcy and their survival is in doubt. (6) The continued success of a deregulated airline system requires the spur of effective actual and potential competition to force airlines to provide high quality service at the lowest possible fares. (7) Further reductions in the number of major airlines may leave the industry without sufficient competition to ensure a continuation of the benefits consumers have received under airline deregulation. (b) ESTABLISHMENT. —There is established a commission to be known as the "National Commission to Ensure a Strong Competitive Airline Industrj^ (hereinsifter in this section referred to as the "Commission"). (c) FUNCTIONS. — (1) INVESTIGATION AND STUDY.— The Commission shall make a complete investigation and study of the financial condition of the airline industry, the adequacy of competition in the airline industry, and legal impediments to a financially strong and competitive airline industry. (2) POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS.—Based on the results of the investigation and study to be conducted under paragraph (1), the Commission shall recommend to the President and Congress those policies which need to be adopted to—

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