came to accept, if not favor, it. For consumers, the record has been mixed. Many of the low-cost airlines that emerged in the early days of deregulation have disappeared, and a wave of mergers among other airlines may have decreased competition in certain markets. Nevertheless, analysts generally agree that air fares are lower than they would have been had regulation continued. And airline travel is booming. In 1978, the year airline deregulation began, passengers flew a total of 226,800 million miles (362,800 million kilometers) on U.S. airlines. By 1997, that figure had nearly tripled, to 605,400 million passenger miles (968,640 kilometers).