US spotlight may target alliances

Non-alliance member Emirates has drawn attention to comments made recently by the chairman of the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, who has said:

“I believe the time has come to reassess the wisdom of allowing the continuation of the reduced level of competition, which results from antitrust immunity for alliances.
I am introducing legislation to require a major study of whether the benefits to consumers of alliances with antitrust immunity outweigh the adverse effects of the resulting loss of competition… .

“It has been suggested that if the remaining two pending immunity applications are approved, the US, European market will essentially be locked down by the top three alliances, which will have a market share
of over 95 per cent. The American Airlines/British Airways-led immunised alliance will control the US, United
Kingdom market, while the Air France/Delta and the United/Lufthansa/Continental-led immunised alliances will have a stranglehold on traffic to continental Europe. There would be no incentive for these alliances to compete with each other, and entry barriers at the most important airports would make it extremely difficult for non-alliance carriers to seriously challenge the alliances.”