Remember How the US Air/American Air Merger Was Going to Help Flyers? - Well The Immediate Result is Loss of Service in Many Cities

Obama Administration – Enemy of the Consumer

The United States government has allowed the airline industry to move from vigorous competition to near monopoly status.  Yes, there are still a lot of major carriers, but they have largely divided up the US into mini-monopolies where one carrier predominates in each area or each airport.

This trend continued with the government allowing US Air and American to merge.  Here is the initial result involving service at Washington National

17 cities axed on D.C. flight routes

They're OK, You're Not

Detroit, Minneapolis, San Diego and 14 other cities will lose their direct American Airlines flights from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the newly merged airline announced Wednesday, blaming the cuts on slots it had to give up as a condition of its merger with US Airways.

And here is what will happen at New York LaGuardia

Atlanta, Cleveland and Minneapolis will no longer have direct service from LaGuardia.

Now this is the result of the combined airline having to give up slots at these airpotrs, and it is possible that the new slots will go to carriers that will restore some of the service to cities that are losing it.  But once again the government has had to choose between a benefit for the airline industry and a benefit for consumers.  And there is no doubt about whose side they are on.  If there is though, remember, it ain’t yours.

Happy flying everyone.