Decade in review: Why the evolution of the airline industry has been a boon

It’s not hard to pick the major theme of the 2010s for the U.S. airline industry.

“It was consolidation,” said Darryl Jenkins, a longtime airline expert. “Airlines decided instead of warring against each other, they could cooperate.”

The era of megamergers was kicked off a couple of years before the 2010s by the blockbuster 2008 deal that brought Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) and Northwest together. But back on Jan. 1, 2010, the commercial aviation landscape was fragmented compared…