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The national benefits of two decades of airline deregulation are easy to measure: more people flying more miles for lower prices than ever. But try flying to Presque Isle to discuss those benefits. Clearly, deregulation’s riches have been distributed unevenly, with rural airports receiving the least of all. A commission to be proposed by Sen. Susan Collins is an important first step in finding ways to make sure less-populated regions of the country are not left out as airline competition intensifies.

Though still in its draft stage, a bill to establish the Airline Deregulation Study Commission could be helpful to all of Maine. The commission would examine affordability, availability and quality of service from the airline industry for small and medium-sized communities. It would also examine how deregulation in the late 1970s has affected job creation and economic development in those communities.

It has only been through the diligence and expertise of officials at Bangor International Airport that conditions haven’t been worse here. But the twin effects of limited airline capacity and lower prices elsewhere are driving customers away from Bangor. This, in turn, keeps airlines from being more interested in serving the region. Without the federal subsidies and restrictions of the past, airlines make choices based purely on their bottom line. BIA Director Robert Ziegelaar called recent airline actions unconscionable with respect to what they are doing to smaller communities.

Further, Mr. Ziegelaar points out, the airlines are requiring rural passengers, along with business travelers, to subsidize heavily discounted fares in major cities, where competition is strongest. No surprise, then, when a preliminary study found that 35 percent of 340,000 air trips from the nine counties that make up BIA’s region were made from somewhere else. People want lower cost, nonstop flights and bigger jets, and many are willing to drive several hours to find them.

A National Research Council committee this summer completed a highly detailed update of its 1991 work on the effects of deregulation. The report, unfortunately, devoted a mere two pages to smaller markets. And even there, its primary point was that the new regional jets — which seat more people than smaller turboprops — may increase opportunities for medium and small communities. The report outlined by Sen. Collins could answer many of the questions the NRC’s report did not.

The problems at medium and small airports will not be hard to identify. The challenge will be devising solutions in a market that has been told for 20 years that unbridled competition is the answer for everything.