CONGRESS VOWS TO FIGHT AIRLINE MERGERS

[WingNaPrayer]

House Panel Chairman Vows To Fight Airline Mergers, Hold Hearings

The Democratic chairman of a key House committee pledged a vigorous effort to slow or stop, if possible, a proposed merger between Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) and rival carriers Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) and United Airlines.

After a subcommittee chairman at a press conference promised hearings to review airline mergers, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., said: "He was very polite on mergers - Hell, no!"

Besides holding hearings, Oberstar said he will pressure the Justice Department and Transportation Department to use their powers to aggressively investigate anti-trust and other implications of any merger.

But he acknowledged that he might not get as aggressive response from the Bush administration as Oberstar would want. "The Justice Department has been sporadic on this matter of mergers and the public interest," he said.

Oberstar predicted that a successful merger between Delta and either Northwest or United would trigger a "domino effect" of airline consolidation. "We could have in a very short period of time, two or three major global carriers," he said.

Delta has opened talks with both United and Northwest about a potential merger, but those talks are in the early stages.

Oberstar said he opposes any mergers in the airline industry because, he claimed, they will reduce consumer choices, raise fare prices, and result in less service to remote areas. In the hub-and-spoke system of today's airlines, he said, "the communities at the furthest end of the spokes are the ones that are left out and left behind."

Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., who chairs the Aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he will hold hearings to " examine the terms and agreements of any merger" if such a deal develops "beyond the rumor and discussion stage.

Costello also said his panel will hold a hearing early this year on improving runway safety, in the wake of recent runway incursions.

This would certainly give AMR pause before considering a merger of their own with any other carrier.

 

[jimntx]

And, how will the public interest be served if one or more of the involved airlines goes under because the merger did not go through?

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn

We should all e-mail this Jackass
and tell him how the current system has put carrier after carrier in Bankruptcy
Maybe due to inept management but the burden of the bankruptcy and failed pensions has now become the problem of the tax payer.

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

http://wwwc.house.gov/oberstar/zipauth.htm

Link to Jackass

You will have to put in a Minnesota Zip
use
56425-2621

 

[AMFAMAN]

Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn

We should all e-mail this Jackass
and tell him how the current system has put carrier after carrier in Bankruptcy
Maybe due to inept management but the burden of the bankruptcy and failed pensions has now become the problem of the tax payer.

I can actually agree with him about the job losses, fare increases, etc, but then I ask where the hell was he for the past 5 years when labor was getting gutted and management was getting bonuses for doing it. He also looked the other way when ScabAir was running a very dangerous airline in the early months of the strike, and that was his home state. So I don't buy his grandstanding now. <_<

 

[eolesen]

Oberstar is bought and paid for by NWA...

And, how will the public interest be served if one or more of the involved airlines goes under because the merger did not go through?

Letting one or more of the involved airlines go under would be of huge public interest, even if it means more people out of work for the short term.

What's not in the public interest is the level of irrational capacity we have in the US. Hubs in places like MEM, STL, CLE and SLC don't help the public any more than it does to have 30+ flights a day between NYC and FLL.

90% load factors aren't because people need to travel -- it's because the industry has made it so cheap to fly rather than drive and/or simply vacation closer to home like we did in the 60's and 70's... Heck, maybe if it weren't so damn cheap to take that week in the Bahamas, the Joe Sixpacks of the world might actually have some money in the bank to pay that mortgage they couldn't afford...

 

[donttouchthebeauty]

Oberstar is bought and paid for by NWA...



Letting one or more of the involved airlines go under would be of huge public interest, even if it means more people out of work for the short term.

What's not in the public interest is the level of irrational capacity we have in the US. Hubs in places like MEM, STL, CLE and SLC don't help the public any more than it does to have 30+ flights a day between NYC and FLL.

90% load factors aren't because people need to travel -- it's because the industry has made it so cheap to fly rather than drive and/or simply vacation closer to home like we did in the 60's and 70's... Heck, maybe if it weren't so damn cheap to take that week in the Bahamas, the Joe Sixpacks of the world might actually have some money in the bank to pay that mortgage they couldn't afford...

Amen to that, fares are where they were in the 70's and airline workers are making less and less.... Mergers need to happen, so we can earn a better living and raise fares.. If we dont have 30 airlines running around this country then AMEN TO THAT!!! We NEED CONSOLIDATION or else we will all be in the poor house FOREVER... There is no reason a transcon ticket should be $200... NONE at all...

 

[AIRBORN1]

where was Oberstar when United,Delta,NWA,USAirways went into bankruptcy. Many jobs were taken away and many of us took big pay cuts to make these airlines survive. Congress needs to Let which ever airline merge just like they allowed Virgin Airways to open for business. Who said we needed another airline.
Jetblue won't be around much after today's losses. When all these airlines go back into bankruptcy this time and delete themselves from the system OBERSTAR is going to be crying the blues on why NWA went out of business. They are all crooks and they are being paid off by these airlines to make
trouble for the merge. Look at Bush last night with all his lies on TV...... Nothing is ever going to change about these people. Money is all evil.

I look forward to Delta merging with whomever and it goes like this........ We lost our pensions at UAL He didn't give a crap about it. so why care
who merges with whom. It's a free society here. The traveling public will be ok. We always knew the big carriers sooner or later would have to merge. They already pay too low fares to travel. It's time to give back our salaries back and keep these airline in the air so americans can pay the high cost to live in america.

 

[ual777fan]

Obestar is an idiot. Airlines merging does not mean that competition still won't exist. Who enplanes more people every year than any other carrier? That would be Southwest. Who is the biggest player by passenger numbers out of JFK? JetBlue. Will USAir suddenly stop flying the shuttle just because Delta merges? I doubt it!. Will United suddenly drop dead out of Chicago and Denver just because they have competition in Asia? Will American just shut down DFW and JFK because of the looming threat of further Delta/NWA competition in Europe? Of course not! We will go from having two full network carriers (UA and AA) to three full network carriers with Delta, as well as significant competition from LCC's, USAir, Alaska and the rest.

 

[777 fixer]

http://wwwc.house.gov/oberstar/zipauth.htm

Link to Jackass

You will have to put in a Minnesota Zip
use
56425-2621

My guess is that unless you are from his district he's not going to care.

 

[WingNaPrayer]

Jetblue won't be around much after today's losses.

I don't think JB will have much of a problem hanging in there after this week's 300 million infusion of cash from Lufthansa to buy a hefty stake in JB!

Lufthansa will keep JB alive through the upcoming turmoil and they will emerge as a carrier to deal with.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< ------The Crisis in the Airline Industry today, is a direct result of "Deregulation!" And I believe that, in time, more people will realize this! You can make all kinds of argument to try and dispute this, but I feel in the end, some sort of "Reregulation" is the only answer!!!

 

[FWAAA]

<_< ------The Crisis in the Airline Industry today, is a direct result of "Deregulation!" And I believe that, in time, more people will realize this! You can make all kinds of argument to try and dispute this, but I feel in the end, some sort of "Reregulation" is the only answer!!!

Well, I disagree with you. Pres. Carter and a very Democrat-controlled Congress disagreed with you 30 years ago and I think they were correct. And I don't usually give Democrats much credit for anything. But they got this one right.

To paraphrase Bob Owens, in that 30 years, the only people who have truly suffered in any "crisis" of which you speak are the represented employees of the various legacy airlines. Management has done OK, airplane manufacturers have thrived and passengers have made out like bandits. So have all the bankruptcy-related suppliers like lawyers, accountants, consultants and bankers.

Check out the growth of RPMs in the last 30 years compared to the US population growth; most people with a job can afford to fly now - as often as they wish. Not so in 1978. So 299 million+ Americans have benefitted due to deregulation while fewer than a million have suffered. I'd say that's a pretty good tradeoff. Almost everyone benefits at the expense of very few. Admitedly, it's been very painful for the workers who didn't see it coming.

The current crisis? It will work itself out. Low cost providers will continue to grow and higher cost providers will either shrink or will continue to try to convince customers to pay more. Oil? Finally has climbed to reasonable levels. $10-$20/bbl prices were ridiculous and encouraged wastefullness.

In sum, the sky ain't falling. As with every industry, there's some dislocation. But eventually, you and the others who preferred the old way will retire or die.

Re-regulation? Notta chance.

 

[eolesen]

Keep dreaming about re-regulation...

There is no crisis in the industry. There's crisis in some portions of the industry, and that's due to both management and labor being slow in reacting to how a free market economy works.

Look at Continental, Alaska, Southwest, Hawaiian, Aloha, and even Delta to some degree. They don't appear to have nearly the level of supposed problems that United, American, USAirways and Northwest do. And it's probably safe to say that America West didn't have nearly the level of employee unrest prior to the US Airways merger...

So, just because the largest carriers are screwed up doesn't mean the whole industry is.

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

My guess is that unless you are from his district he's not going to care.

He wont know if you are or arent from his district
The Zip Code says you are the e-mail goes through.

I vented to him yesterday