A group of Travel Organizations is urging Congress to create a national commission to study airline competition, after a decade of consolidation and a year of record profits.
A similar commission gauged the Industry’s Health in 1993. But groups including the Travel Technology Association, Airports Council International-North America, the U.S. Travel Association and the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) contend that much has changed in the last quarter-century and the industry deserves a new look.
The recent series of mergers has left relatively few major airlines in control of the industry. Along with Southwest, the remaining three legacy carriers have about 80 percent of the market share for flights within the U.S. Ultra-budget airlines like Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant have provided some competitive fares on select routes, but their presence is not big enough to really affect the whole marketplace.
Lack of domestic competition is not the only issue that traveler and travel agent advocates want the government to look at. U.S. carriers are also forming alliances with international airlines that go beyond basic code sharing agreements. For example, American Airlines and LATAM have inked a deal and are waiting for regulatory approval that would allow them to set prices and schedules on routes between the North and South Americas and easily use each other’s networks to offer connecting flights to their customers.
Other subject that the groups would like to study include:
Agreements with 100 other countries to allow unhindered international travel, under a policy called Open Skies.
Topics above are worth exploring to better understand the competitive landscape of Air Travel in the U.S.