The airlines also have targeted a popular rule that targets long ground delays.

"Right now we are subject to what is really a hodge-podge of ill-thought-out regulations and taxes," Calio said.

And the industry wants amendments to rules that limit pilot flight time and require student pilots to have at least 1,500 hours of experience before taking the co-pilot seat on a commercial flight.

Though airlines were deregulated in 1978, they "are still one of the most regulated sectors in the economy," Calio said.

The airlines said the Federal Aviation Administration needs to expedite its modernization of the air traffic system -- a slow moving and expensive effort to move from radar-based control to one relying on satellites.

The government also can remove obstacles to global competition, the trade group said.

"I would label the creep of the foreign carriers as insidious," Calio said. "As the Middle Eastern carriers keep flying to more American cities ... they're taking away the international routes. It's really the international routes in many cases where the greatest profits are. Those profits subsidize small- and medium-size routes within the United States."

A4A said it would seek to have Congress enact legislation for elements of the National Airline Policy.