A giant merger amid airline woes

With the airline industry confronting mounting fuel prices and new safety concerns, Delta Air Lines and Northwest this week approved a $3 billion merger that would create the world’s largest airline. The consolidation would allow the two airlines to save money by cutting redundant routes, analysts said, but also would likely drive up ticket prices. Two other airlines, United and Continental, are also discussing a merger. Last week, Frontier Airlines became the fourth small carrier to declare bankruptcy in a month, and insiders predicted more turmoil and consolidation. “It’s survival of the fittest,” said John Heimlich of the Air Transport Association.

American Airlines is still reeling from having grounded 300 planes and having canceled more than 3,000 flights for emergency repairs last week, stranding some 250,000 passengers. The moves came after Congress berated the Federal Aviation Administration for becoming too cozy with the airlines. At several airports this week, American pilots mounted protests, accusing the carrier of cutting corners. “They are trying to run the airline on the cheap,” said pilot Jim Dillard. “It’s really starting to show.”

“Last week was one of the worst in commercial aviation history,” said The Dallas Morning News in an editorial. But the worst may be yet to come. After lawmakers criticized the FAA for allowing Southwest Airlines to fly planes that had not been inspected, the agency finally awoke from its slumber. But that could mean that more airlines will have to cancel flights, to make fixes that should have been done long ago. “The airlines and the FAA made this lumpy bed; it’s a shame the traveling public has to sleep in it.”

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More regulation is not the answer, said Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune. Obviously, “airlines have powerful incentives not to crash planes,” and there hasn’t been a serious crash involving a major airline since November 2001. But when the FAA stepped in and forced American to ground its planes for a trivial infraction, countless travelers got in cars instead—which happens to be a far more dangerous form of travel. That makes no sense.

But something has got to give, said Jack Fuller, also in the Chicago Tribune. Air passengers are exasperated, and for good reason. To pinch pennies, airlines overbook flights and schedule them so closely together that if anything goes wrong—even the weather—“the system goes into turmoil.” There either must be a “vast investment to increase the system’s capacity,” or reduced volume, which would force airlines to raise prices. Either way, it’s going to cost us.