DALLAS (AP) – 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, mega-mergers 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 airline-schedule tracking service.