Airline stocks down sharply - DOJ reportedly to block AMR/LCC

[Pi brat]

I heard a youTube video is what convinced the administration that the merger was wrong.

 

[Pi brat]

The low-class namecalling that starts from LCC employees the minute anyone dares to disagree with them (see also, the endless and pointlessly repetitive U.S Airways pilots "discussion" for the past 7 years or so) makes me less and less interested every day in the proposed merger.

BTW, it's not U.S. Airways. We don't work for United States Airways. It's US Airways. And if you don't like the pilot thread, don't go there. Great thing about our free country.

 

[Pi brat]

awwwww bless your heart

You think he/she knows that the really means? ;-)

 

[cltrat]

You think he/she knows that the really means? ;-)

lol I hope so

 

[P. REZ]

Huh,

Fact #1- The top 5 airlines have lost over $40 Billion since 2003.
Fact #2- Since consolidation started the top 5 airlines have started to rebound. 2 of the 5 still lost money.
Fact #3- Most airline CEO's if not all and analyst's agree that consolidation was and is still needed.

I'm not saying I want the merger with AMR.

 

[P. REZ]

True, if plane tickets get too expensive, quantity demanded goes down - fewer people fiy; that truism doesn't excuse a violation of the Clayton Act. It's true about everything we buy: if gasoline gets too expensive, we buy less of it. So should we blindly approve mergers of all the oil companies?



So it's ok for competitors to merge and reduce competition because, after all, consumers only have so much money to spend and if the reduced competition causes ticket prices to climb too high, then fewer tickets will be sold? That does not excuse anticompetitive mergers.

Economists generally argue that monopolists undersupply their product (which is then sold for a higher price) than the quantity that would be supplied in a competitive market (at, obviously, lower prices). Which is better for consumers? Tight supply at high prices or more of the product at lower prices?

If we accept your view, then the government lacked jurisdiction to control the monopolistic behaviour of, say, beer producers. Beer consumption is complely discretionary, no? So if the beer companies get together and fix prices and allocate markets, that's ok because if their illegal conduct causes prices to rise too much, they'll sell less beer? So under your view, it would be ok if all the beer producers merged into one big global brewery - a monopoly? InBev should merge with every other beer producer in the world because their product (beer) isn't essential? Along the same lines, all cell phone companies should be permitted to merge into one cell phone provider because their product is discretionary?

I'm curious - which industries should have to follow the antitrust laws if not the airlines?

Apples and oranges. Beer companies haven't lost billions. Give me an industry that has lost billions over a ten year span that weren't allowed to consolidate.

P. Rez

 

[signals]

Gee the gov fears that this will raise ticket prices. As opposed to what? Nickel-and-diming the sheep by charging for anything from luggage to your seat to the air you breathe??? Not about US but about your industry in general.

I have no doubt that this merger will happen, but somehow the gov wants more than it's share. Never mind that B6 has come up with a solution to the lost luggage. Charge to deliver people's luggage to where they are within a 40 mile radius of the airport. Correct me if I'm wrong, but lost and recovered luggage is delivered for free. Now you have stupid people who pay for convenience offsetting B6's lost luggage cost. BRILLIANT!

But the DOJ, that has no IQ, has a problem with a merger that doesn't involve Delta!!!

Bite Me...

http://www.ksn.com/2013/08/14/airline-mergers-have-already-led-to-higher-fares/

Mergers are happening here and in Europe and suddenly there is a red flag?

 

[xUT]

If the gooberment is so concerned that capitalist competition might harm the consumer, then just regulate it.
Oh yea they are, my bad...

 

[signals]

they surely don't have a corner on the market.... this is one area where the DOJ won't have any problem ensuring ample competitive forces continue to exist. -)

I still wouldn't be surprised if there are other "forces" at work here. You know, the ones that would have a problem with this merger actually hitting their bottom line.

 

[signals]

If the gooberment is so concerned that capitalist competition might harm the consumer, then just regulate it.
Oh yea they are, my bad...

Apparently, they aren't getting their cut of the luggage fees!

 

[ContUNITEus]

According to the complaint, in a 2011 e-mail exchange lamenting the need for US Airways to deploy wireless Internet on all of its planes, a senior US Airways executive groused, “Next it will be more legroom. Then industry standard labor contracts. Then better wines. Then the ability to book on Facebook. Penultimately, television commercials. Then, finally, we will pay the NYSE an exorbitant fee to change our ticker symbol [from LCC].”

http://www.bloomberg...-the-start.html

 

[AirwAr]

...

I also feel the DOJ is interfering with the airlines ability to compete on a world stage with other airlines that don't face.

...

That's the great thing...AA doesn't need US to compete on the world stage. AA will be successful. While AA's stand-alone plan won't let them dominate the industry...it will definitively be a competitive force to DL/UA/WN.

 

[cltrat]

That's the great thing...AA doesn't need US to compete on the world stage. AA will be successful. While AA's stand-alone plan won't let them dominate the industry...it will definitively be a competitive force to DL/UA/WN.

lol good luck with that, you've certainly been doing well the past few years.

 

[LD3]

How did the DOJ get copies of internal emails? If US was blindsided by this lawsuit, is it possible the emails were leaked?

 

[ContUNITEus]

Maybe it was a conspiracy orchestrated by Horton, because he truly does not want to leave.