The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) expressed fears that the newly announced merger of American Airlines and US Airways would serve the public interest.
"From a consumer standpoint individual traveler or corporate travel department there are few benefits to offset the negative impacts of this merger that includes reduced competition, higher fares and fees and diminished service to small and mid-size communities," said BTC Chairman Kevin Mitchell.
"To be clear, there is benefit in a financially viable air transportation system. However, previous mergers have already enabled seat capacity cuts, higher fares and billions of dollars in fees for ancillary services resulting in a financially strengthening industry," Mitchell said.
"As such, consumer harms from this merger are indeed exacerbated, as there are no substantial countervailing consumer benefits," added Mitchell.
BTC has just published an industry analysis of the merger at http://bit.ly/VfUnMK.
Visit www.businesstravelcoalition.com