In the wake of recent deals that would consolidate the airline industry in the hands of a few giant carriers, the Clinton administration plans to issue a last-minute call to police the industry more closely.

In a speech this evening in New York and at a news conference tomorrow, the departing Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater intends to release three studies criticizing the state of competition in air travel and laying out a blueprint for how the government can improve the situation, according to senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But after receiving strong criticism from the airlines, some academics and the White House itself, and with less than a week left in the Clinton administration, Mr. Slater will stop short of issuing guidelines first proposed three years ago that would have put airlines on notice about how aggressively they could respond to low-fare competitors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/business/16AIR.html

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 01-16-2001).]