US Airways + American = ? for Atlanta Airfares
Courtesy: US Airways and American Airlines
The U.S. Department of Justice this week filed suit to stop American and US Airways from merging, claiming the merger would drive up airfares.
But let’s assume the merger goes through. What effect might it have on what Atlanta pays for airfare?
The honest answer: Your guess is as good as mine. 
Airline pricing is a matrix few understand.
Competition along routes is just one variable in that calculus.
But recent mergers, including the 2008 Delta/Northwest marriage, give Jonathan Kletzel enough data to make a general, but educated claim.
“Those mergers did not have a significant impact on pricing,” says Kletzel, who is the US Transportation & Logistics Partner at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC).
He says at some point, a decrease in competitors will mean one airline will have significant control over prices.
“What that number of competitors ‘is’ is to be determined.”
The two airlines have a relatively small presence out of Hartsfield-Jackson. American serves four cities non-stop from Atlanta (ORD, DFW, MIA, LGA); US Airways, three (CLT, PHL, PHX).
None overlap.
And with the exception of Miami and Charlotte, each of those destinations has Delta and at least one other competitor on the route.
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