In almost every Laurel and Hardy movie the comes a moment when Oliver glares at a usually weepy Stan and says something like, “Now look the mess you’ve gotten us into.” While it is clear to all US aviation stakeholders and travelers that there is a mess, there is, alas, no particular “Stan” to take the rap. Consolidation, the next big thing, is causing a new and different type of angst in the market, with unions and legislators discussing the need for some sort of re-regulation in order to shore-up the current players and, arguably, return them to consistent profitability. Despite the flurry of consumer-related regulation already in place, this would be a massive u-turn for a country which gave the world deregulation, as CAPA investigates.