Originally Posted by
roundrulers
Why isn't it illegal when all airlines collude with each other and raise prices at the same time?
Just because the airline execs don't get together in a smoky room and arrange this doesn't make it less illegal.
Because there's no industry wide competitor in the US. In Europe and in Japan, they have high speed rail that competes with the airlines to a certain extent. Obviously there's no competition between airlines and rail from say, Madrid to Athens or from Sapporo to Okinawa, but between Paris and London or Tokyo to Osaka, air competes heavily with rail.