Originally Posted by
BearX220
Ask yourself what benefits the public has realized from any of the big mergers since US + America West in 2005. They have all been about consolidating pricing power, reducing choices and competition, and generating better returns for shareholders. Whatever happens to NK now that it's in play will be no different.
And whatever happens it will leave the remaining small and mid-tier players -- JetBlue or Frontier, Alaska, Hawaiian, Sun Country, Breeze, and Avelo -- feeling smaller still and vulnerable, and desperately seeking dance partners.
These deals are always sold as pro-consumer and they always turn out precisely the opposite.
30-35 years ago this country had 10 or so network carriers, good service levels, and robust competition. Now we've got three network carriers plus Southwest and... just look at service levels.
Originally Posted by
NewtonsLaw
You also got an average US domestic roundtrip fare some 30% lower in real terms - it's not all bad.
Average airfare was $538 inflation adjusted in 1995, was $314 as of 3Q21
https://www.bts.gov/content/national...ge-fare-series
Many more people fly today versus thirty years ago, with cheaper airfare, even among the airlines that merged. Mergers may not have been "pro consumer" in a traditional sense but the airline industry as a whole offers more flights and more choice at cheaper prices to many, many more people than it did 30 years ago