[_heimdall]

While I agree that free markets aren't always the answer, I also don't think government intervention is either. We don't have to have a civilian aviation industry, we definitely don't have to have it at the scale it exists today. If the business isn't viable then so be it. We can fly less, pay more for it, or accept planes with fewer features and creature comforts.

Companies will expand, and spend, to fill whatever space they are given. If a government poor's money into the industry they will find ways to spend it. A company is ultimately trying to maximize the capital it has, sitting on profits and paying the taxes that go along with it don't do the trick.

Markets are much too complex to say what they would look like after removing subsidies, but with something like air travel it absolutely isn't a necessity that must be protected. Travel is great and all, but it isn't as fundamental as food, water, or shelter.