People determined to fly via cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages often assume that airline mergers result in increased fares because there is less competition. A recent study of the four big mergers between airlines over the last decade found little impact on airfares as a result of those mergers.
The following are the largest mergers of U.S. airlines over the past 10 years: US Airways combined with America West in 2005, Delta with Northwest in 2008, United with Continental in 2010, and Southwest with AirTran in 2011.
The report, by profession services firm PwC US, found that the average domestic ticket price increased slightly less than 2 percent each year from 2004 to 2011. While fare surges were witnessed on select routes, overall the impact was minor.
These mergers also did not reduce flight choices overall. In 2004 the top 1,000 routes were served by a little less than two competing airlines in 2004. This number remained about the same in 2011.
History has shown if one airline exits a market after a merger, typically a competing large airline or low cost carriers enter the market, helping to maintain competition.
Airlines have recently posted some of their best performance results. During the first six months of this year the airline industry experienced its lowest rate of mishandled luggage on record - under 3 instances per 1,000 fliers.
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