Transportation and Justice Departments Start Airline Competition Review
Joe Cortez October 25, 2024
U.S. Department of Transportation Building
The two departments announced a joint effort to begin “a broad public inquiry into the state of competition in air travel,” seeking to learn more about the current state of competition and how it affects the public.
Probe Goal to “Identify and Remove Barriers to Competition”
The Transportation Department is working with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to learn more about the current situation in the general aviation industry. In their Request For Information, they are asking for public comments around six different areas.
The three areas that affect consumers the most are the general state of competition in the aviation sector, airline consolidation, and airport access. The probe seeks to learn more about how mergers and acquisitions in the aviation industry has affected passengers, workers, and jobs, along with access to airports across the United States and around the world.
“Americans count on air travel to visit loved ones, explore their country, and get business done,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Good service and fair prices depend on ensuring that there is real competition, which is especially challenging for the many American communities that have lost service amid airline consolidation. Our goal with this inquiry is to identify and remove barriers to competition so that more Americans can access the opportunities that come with good, affordable air service.”
Other areas the two departments are asking for more information on are around aircraft manufacturing, air transportation sales channels, pricing, and airline rewards programs, and labor market issues.
The move is the latest by the Justice Department’s antitrust division to ensure fairness across the aviation industry in the last four years marked by attempted mergers. The group has previously worked to block the Northeast Alliance between American Airlines and JetBlue, along with the proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.
For the Transportation Department, it’s the second major action in the aviation industry in as many days. Prior to the announcement of the probe, the agency announced their largest fine ever against American Airlines for mishandling wheelchairs.
The public can comment on the request for information through December 23, 2024, at regulations.gov under docket ID ATR-2024-0001.
Feature image courtesy: kmf164/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
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...the only way to do this is through some form of "re-regulation". Most of the big competition busting mergers occurred in the deregulated era. Before then they were rather uncommon with the most notable ones being United-Capital in 1961 along with Allegheny-Mohawk and Delta-Northeast in 1972.
Airline rewards programs will most likely have the largest numbers of comments, especially how the airlines are now disguised as banks pushing the co-branded credit cards. The value of the reward miles diminishes by the minute.