DOJ is calling for the denial of a proposed lease agreement between Delta Air Lines and United Airlines that would add to United’s control of Newark flight operations and build Delta’s presence at JFK.
Travelers United, a DC-area-based advocacy group for travelers, commends the Department of Justice (DOJ) for examining the control of airport slots by major carriers. NYC-area airports are among the most important in the country. Plus, these airports are slot-controlled, meaning new airlines cannot enter these markets, unless slots are taken away from the legacy carriers.
“The control of airport takeoff and landing slots and the careful shuffling of these controlled slots among the major carriers amounts to restraint of trade, and clearly falls under the antitrust laws enforced by DOJ,” says Charlie Leocha, Chairman of Travelers United.
The control of airline traffic in and out of LaGuardia, JFK and Newark Airports in the New York area is dramatic. Delta and American Airlines slots at LaGuardia dwarf those of other competitors. American, Delta and jetBlue control more than 90 percent of the slots at JFK. And, United holds 902 of 1,233 available slots at Newark.
“This is not a level playing field, nor is there effective competition,” Leocha bluntly states. “Consumers are losing and welcome this intervention of DOJ.”
As other airline competitors battle for enough takeoff and landing slots at these NYC-area airports, this action by DOJ is welcome.
“The big mergers -- Delta/Northwest, Continental/United, and American/USAirways -- have squeezed competition out of the aviation market,” Leocha continues. “With this kind of antitrust action by the DOJ and close monitoring of slots by the FAA, consumers can begin to see new effective competition entering the airline market, increasing capacity and, hopefully, prices beginning to drop.”
Travelers United has regularly been advocating with DOJ and the Department of Transportation outlining the anticompetitive nature of the legacy carrier control of airport capacity and the effects of exchanging slots to add to each other’s control while suppressing new competitors.
About Travelers United
Travelers United (formerly Consumer Travel Alliance) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that works to provide consumers an articulate and reasoned voice in decisions that affect travel consumers across travel’s entire spectrum — airlines, rental cars, cruise lines, rail and hotels. Travelers United’s staff gathers facts, analyzes issues, and disseminates that information to the public, the travel industry, regulators and policy makers. For more information or to join, visit travelersunited.org.
