The Demise of Airline Strike Insurance

Abstract

This article updates the 1975 study by the authors of the use of strike insurance in the airline industry. It presents data on the insurance payments made and received by the member airlines, and on their strike experience, over the entire 1958–78 period during which the Mutual Aid Agreement was in effect. The updated material reinforces the authors' conclusion in their earlier study that the agreement “appears to have provided escalated costs and benefits and longer strikes, but little else.” The authors also explain how and why the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 put an end to the agreement.