The Recorder, Amsterdam, N.Y.
YOUR WORLD
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 / 9
U.S. skyways dominated by one or two airlines
By DAVID KOENIG
and SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
The Associated Press
DALLAS — The wave of consolidation that swept the U.S. airline industry has markedly
reduced competition at many of
the nation’s major airports, and
passengers appear to be paying
the price in higher fares and fees,
an Associated Press analysis has
found.
Over the past decade, megamergers reduced nine large U.S.
airlines to four — American,
United, Delta and Southwest —
with the result that travelers are
increasingly finding their home
airport dominated by just one or
two players.
Over the same period, domestic
airfares rose faster than inflation,
and analysts believe one leading
factor is the decline in competitive pressure.
“Airlines aren’t going at each
other like they used to,” said
Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant frequently hired by airports.
“They have their turf, and they
very rarely go to the mattresses
with one another.”
At 40 of the 100 largest U.S. airports, a single airline controls a
majority of the market, as measured by the number of seats for
sale, up from 34 airports a decade
earlier. At 93 of the top 100, one
or two airlines control a majority
of the seats, an increase from 78
airports, according to AP’s analysis of data from Diio, an airlineschedule tracking service.
Overall, domestic fares climbed
5 percent over the past 10 years,
after adjusting for inflation. And
that doesn’t include the $25
checked bag fee and other add-on
charges that many fliers now pay.
To be sure, other factors have
contributed to higher fares,
among them a stronger economy,
longer average flight distances
and, for most of the past few
years, some of the highest fuel
prices in history. However, analysts believe consolidation freed
airlines to charge more.
The strategy is paying off: In
the past two years, U.S. airlines
made a record $19.7 billion in
profits, even though air travel is
growing only modestly.
The airlines’ main trade group,
Airlines for America, said the
fare increases reflect stronger
demand for travel and are not
solely a result of the mergers. The
group noted that airlines have
used their profits to buy new jets
and update airport facilities.
American Airlines CEO Doug
Parker rejected the notion that
The Associated Press
Passengers head through a security check-point as a large sign advertising a Delta credit card hangs overhead at Seattle-Tacoma International
Airport in SeaTac, Wash. Delta is building Seattle into a gateway to Asia and adding flights on domestic routes long dominated by Alaska.
Seattle-based Alaska has responded by adding service. RIGHT: Planes taxi on a runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
consolidation has hurt travelers.
“We have increased flying out
of each of our hubs,” Parker said.
“We want to expand. That’s good
for consumers, not bad.”
The Justice Department notified
the four largest airlines on June 30
that it is investigating whether they
are colluding to drive up fares by
limiting the availability of flights
and seats. Those four control more
than 80 percent of the U.S. market.
There was a time — before
deregulation in 1978 — when
fliers had even fewer choices and
paid higher fares than they do now.
Back then, the U.S. government
controlled which airlines flew to
which cities and how much they
could charge. Competition intensified in the 1980s. As new airlines
entered the market, fares dropped
precipitously.
After 9/11 and the recession that
hit immediately afterward, major
airlines were in financial shambles. Several restructured through
bankruptcy, and a wave of deals
starting in 2008 led to the combinations of Delta and Northwest,
United and Continental, Southwest and AirTran, and American
and US Airways.
Justice Department antitrust
regulators let the deals go
through but forced airlines in a
few cases to give up some of their
spots at key airports to try to
encourage competition.
Still, “the airline industry is less
competitive now than it used to
be,” said Seth Kaplan, managing
partner of industry newsletter
Airline Weekly. “Some of us used
to have eight or nine airlines to
choose from. Now we have
maybe four or five, just as we
have four or five cellphone companies to choose from.”
The mergers have altered the
competitive landscape at airports
big and small.
• In Indianapolis, the two leading
airlines controlled just 37 percent
of the seats a decade ago, and
domestic fares were 9 percent
below the national average. Then
the city’s main airline, ATA, went
bankrupt and was bought by
Southwest, and its No. 2 carrier,
Northwest, was absorbed by Delta.
Now two airlines control 56 percent of the seats, and airfares are 6
percent above the national average.
• The Dayton, Ohio, airport was
served by 10 airlines in 2005, and
fares were 5 percent below average. Today, just four airlines fly
there and prices are almost 10
percent above average.
• Big hub airports aren’t
immune. In 2005, US Airways
controlled nearly 66 percent of the
seats in Philadelphia. Now that
US Airways has merged with
American, the combined airline
has 77 percent of the seats. Airfare
has gone from 4 percent below
average to 10 percent above it.
• Delta’s hold on Atlanta, the
Official calls teen’s plane crash survival a miracle
SEATTLE (AP) — A 16-year-old girl survived a
small plane crash in the rugged mountains of northcentral Washington state and then hiked through
thick forest to reach safety in what one official
called “a miracle.” But searchers were still looking
for the plane wreckage and her two step-grandparents, who were also on board.
There was no official word on the status of the
older couple, identified as Leland and Sharon
Bowman of Marion, Mont.
Navy helicopters searched for the wreckage until
late Monday night, several hours after fixed wing
planes suspended their efforts. The search was to
resume today, weather permitting.
David Veatch of Bellingham, the father of survivor Autumn Veatch, told reporters outside a
Brewster hospital late Monday his daughter was
exhausted but doing remarkably well. She was able
to joke with him about all the survival shows they
watched together on television, he said.
The teen has no life-threatening injuries but was
dehydrated and suffering from a type of treatable
muscle tissue breakdown caused by vigorous exercise without food or water, Three Rivers Hospital
CEO Scott Graham said. She was kept at the hospital overnight for hydration and rest.
The Beech A-35 left Kalispell, Mont., Saturday
afternoon, headed for Lynden, Wash.
Veatch’s father, said his daughter told him the
plane crashed and caught fire after flying into a
bank of clouds. She remained at the crash site for a
day before deciding to hike down, eventually finding a trail and following it to a trailhead. A motorist
picked her up Monday afternoon and drove her 30
miles to a general store, where employees called
911. The Aero Methow Rescue Service sent a paramedic team to check her out before she was taken to
the Brewster hospital. Okanogan County Sheriff
Frank Rogers said Monday afternoon that the girl
had been “walking for a couple of days.”
world’s busiest airport, increased
during that same period from 78
percent of seats to just over 80 percent. At the same time, low-cost
AirTran merged into Southwest
and reduced flights there.
Domestic airfares at the airport
went from nearly 6 percent below
average to 11 percent above.
• Some cities are actually seeing
lower fares than they did a decade
ago. Prices in Denver were once
5.6 percent higher than the national average. Now that United’s
market share there has dropped to
41 percent from 56 percent, fares
are almost 15 percent lower than
the rest of the country.
Recent deals indicate the big airlines intend to stick to a strategy
of dominating one airport and forgoing marginal service elsewhere.
For instance, United announced
in June that it will abandon
Kennedy Airport and move its
dwindling number of JFK flights
to New Jersey’s Newark airport,
where it already controls 68 percent of the seats. At the same
time, if regulators go along, Delta
will further shrink its small presence at Newark and take over
United’s share at JFK, where
Delta is already top dog.
One of the few competitive battles is taking place in Seattle,
where Delta is mounting a fierce
challenge to longtime No. 1
Alaska Airlines. Delta is building
Seattle into a gateway to Asia and
adding flights on domestic routes
long dominated by Alaska.
Seattle-based
Alaska
has
responded by adding service.
The average fare at SeattleTacoma International Airport was
$377 in the third quarter of 2014,
$18 below the national average.
Daily Bridge Club
by Frank Stewart
Tribune Media Services