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We remain convinced that the airline merger between U.S. Airways and American Airlines is harmful west palm beach hotels to competition, and to Arizonans. This merger would inevitably result in higher fares and lesser service as more routes would be monopolized by just one carrier.
west palm beach hotels The law of supply and demand is an unchangeable law of nature, like the law of gravity. When there are more suppliers, prices go down and service goes up as they compete for business. As the number of airline carriers has decreased in recent years, we've all seen fares go up and new fees imposed for baggage, desirable seats, etc. Our complaint quotes one of the airline presidents as reporting that consolidation (mergers that reduce the number of airlines) has enabled the airlines to raise prices.
Less competition means fewer choices, diminished service, and higher prices. It is a law of nature. Arizona will continue the fight to promote competition in order to produce more service and reasonable prices for the people of Arizona. west palm beach hotels The trial is set for November 25th.
Arizona of course is home to Tempe, which is home to US Airways, which wants to merge with American Airlines. Phoenix s Sky Harbor International Airport is also a major US Airways hub. US Airways and American officials have said that the merged airline s headquarters will be in Fort Worth at American west palm beach hotels s headquarters. So Arizona loses a major headquarters and a number of jobs if the merger goes through.
At the other end of the United States, west palm beach hotels Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is getting pressure from American Airlines flight attendants to follow Texas lead and abandon its position as one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed Aug. 13 to block the merger of American and US Airways.
Anyone standing in the way of the merger is also standing in the way of hard-working Virginians. west palm beach hotels Ken Cuccinelli is trying to kill this deal at the expense of thousands of airline workers in his state.
The antitrust suit is wrong both as a matter of fact and a matter of policy and I'm not sure why he joined it in the first place. I'm sure that if he had he discussed it with employees beforehand and given it more careful consideration he would have arrived at a different decision. On behalf of Virginia's flight attendants and their families, I'm calling on General Cuccinelli to rectify his mistake.
There are thousands of Virginians depending on this merger. For them, finalizing the deal could mean the difference between good middle class job security and layoffs. Gen. Cuccinelli should welcome the new American, not stand in the way.
When the lawsuit was filed Aug. 13, Cuccinelli said the merger, as proposed, significantly reduces competition and poses too big a threat of higher fares for Virginia consumers at Reagan National, west palm beach hotels Richmond International, Norfolk International, and Charlottesville-Albemarle airports. This is especially true at Reagan National Airport, where the combined airline would hold 69 percent of the takeoff and landing slots almost six times more than its closest competitor.
We ve discovered a question-and-answer document on Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane s website that explains why she joined in with the other state attorneys general and the U.S. Department of Justice in opposing the US Airways-American Airlines merger. Keep reading for that Q A.
Behind Texas, Pennsylvania is one of the most impacted states from this merger. Also US Airways is the largest airline at many Pennsylvania airports including Philadelphia, Allentown, Harrisburg and Scranton Wilkes-Barre. This transaction will negatively impact at least 1 million Pennsylvania travelers. It will increase the cost of flying.
At least 700. US Airways has acknowledged that it would close its operation center outside Pittsburgh, built in part with a state grant, and rely on American s operation center in Dallas. In mergers, duplicative facilities are often closed. It is not known at this time whether the maintenance bases and pilot training centers US Airways operates in Pennsylvania would be viewed as duplicative. If they were so viewed, then those jobs would be lost as well.
3. Isn t it true that the merger would help Philadelphia but hurt Pittsburgh?  So you can t say that Pennsylvania would be hurt by the merger if one city benefits and another suffers, isn?t that right?
No. First, it is not true that Philadelphia will be helped by this transaction. More than 1 million people travelling to and from Pennsylvania would face higher fares and most of them would begin or end their travels in Philadelphia. US Airways argues that the merger would lead to increased service in Philadelphia. The big driver for that increased service would be increased demand, but the merger will lead to higher west palm beach hotels prices and higher prices stifle demand. Moreover, US Airways is saying the exact same thing as Delta did when it tried to get its merger with Northwest approved and United did when it tried to get its merger with Continental approved. Neither airline has delivered on its promises of dramatically increased service. Delta even closed two hubs. So this will definitely hurt Pittsburgh and growth west palm beach hotels in Philadelphia will be deterred.
The airlines are great record keepers. All pricing of all seats are recorded. When we analyze west palm beach hotels that data we see what everyone knows, when you have more airlines flying between two points, prices are lower. We can calculate the price difference between west palm beach hotels what airlines charge when only one airline is on a route, when two are on a route and so on. We can get an accurate tally of the pricing difference this merger will cause.
Airlines price against the fares of their competitors. Unlike other businesses, airlines know every price a competitor has for a 21 day fare, a 14 day fare, a last minute fare and all the fares in between. When only Delta or United is on a route, the fares will be at a certain level. When US Airways or Soutwest is on a route, last minute fares charged by them will be lower. We can calculate the difference west palm beach hotels and use the difference to predict how much consumers will be harmed.
There are two reasons. First, no two mergers are exactly alike. Most importantly, the other mergers did not involve airlines with hubs in Pennsylvania. Second, the claims made by US Airways are identical to the claims the other airlines have made to support their mergers and their claims of consumer benefits have proven untrue.
There is an experience from the previous mergers that shows that the airline s claims of consumer benefits are grossly overstated especially as they have been applied in Pennsylvania. In Delta/Northwest, Harrisburg lost service to Minneapolis, all cities served by Delta saw the reduction or elimination of service to Cincinnati and the expansion of service to Memphis never happened. In Southwest/Airtran, Southwest pulled completely out of Allentown and Harrisburg and greatly reduced its service to Philadelphia.
No. We understand that Philadelphia expects to see a large increase in passengers if the merger occurs, but that will only happen if all of sudden higher prices lead to more passengers flying to and from Philadelphia. As we know when prices for a product west palm beach hotels rise, consumers buy less of that product. Here is what has happened at Philadelphia since the mergers of Delta/Northwest, United/Continental, and Southwest/Airtran. Delta/Northwest seats are down 14.6%, United/Continental west palm beach hotels seats are down 21.4% and Southwest/Airtran seats are down 50.5%.
US Airways does not behave any differently than the other airlines. On its flights to Pittsburgh and Boston, the average fares on both routes when there has been competition have been about $125. When there is no competition the average fares are about $250.  On the Pittsburgh route the number of travelers has dropped by 50% in the face of higher fares. west palm beach hotels On the Boston route they have dropped by about one-third.
Philadelphia-Dallas has 341,000 passengers a year. Philadelphia-Miami has 176,000 passengers. Philadelphia-Chicago west palm beach hotels has 574,000 passengers. Similar price increases to what we have seen on the routes to Boston and Pittsburgh would lead to enormous reductions in the number of passengers at Philadelphia,  not increases.
west palm beach hotels Prices have also gone up on a vacation route like Philadelphia-Orlando west palm beach hotels where Southwest west palm beach hotels and Airtran have reduced west palm beach hotels the number of seats out of both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. As a consequence, fares have risen 5%-14% out of Philadelphia, and 6%-10% out of Pittsburgh. The corresponding declines in traffic have been 13.6% (155,000 passengers) out of Philadelphia and 11% (42,000) passenger west palm beach hotels out of Pittsburgh.
The bottom line is that more people are not going to come to Philadelphia in the face of higher prices and less competition whether it is through a merger like Delta/Northwest or Southwest/Airtran or an airline west palm beach hotels simply deciding not to fly a route as was the case in Pittsburgh west palm beach hotels and Boston leads to higher prices.
Both airlines are experiencing record profits, in large part because they have been able to raise prices and charge west palm beach hotels consumers more fees. American has placed the largest west palm beach hotels new plane order in history. Absent a tragedy similar to the 9/11 terrorists attacks, the airlines are not currently on the verge of failing.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged AA , AAMRQ , airlines , American Airlines , AMR , APFA , Arizona , Association of Professional Flight Attendants , Greg Abbott , Ken Cuccinelli , Laura Glading , LCC , Texas , Tom Horne , US Airways west palm beach hotels , Virginia by Terry Maxon . Bookmark the permalink .
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