The morbidity of allergic airway disease and the number of deaths resulting from it have not declined in the past ten years. The multiplicity of mediators released in the acute allergic reaction and our limited knowledge of the basic mechanisms that drive chronic inflammation have hampered the design of effective therapeutic regimens for this type of disease. In this article, Claude Bertrand and Pierangelo Geppetti summarize recent studies in which new, potent and selective tachykinin and kinin receptor antagonists demonstrate the involvement of tachykinins and kinins in airway anaphylaxis, and review how these antagonists might be of use in treating allergic asthma and rhinitis.