[Senate Hearing 106-1053]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 106-1053
AIRLINE COMPETITION IN THE WAKE OF THE PROPOSED US AIRWAYS/UNITED
MERGER
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ANTITRUST,
BUSINESS RIGHTS, AND COMPETITION
of the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 14, 2000
__________
Serial No. J-106-89
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
74-755 WASHINGTON : 2001
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah, Chairman
STROM THURMOND, South Carolina PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware
JON KYL, Arizona HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin
MIKE DeWINE, Ohio DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
JOHN ASHCROFT, Missouri RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin
SPENCER ABRAHAM, Michigan ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
BOB SMITH, New Hampshire
Manus Cooney, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Bruce A. Cohen, Minority Chief Counsel
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Subcommittee on Antitrust, Business Rights, and Competition
MIKE DeWINE, Ohio, Chairman
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey
STROM THURMOND, South Carolina PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
Pete Levitas, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Jon Leibowitz, Minority Chief Counsel and Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Page
DeWine, Hon. Mike, a U.S. Senator from the State of Ohio......... 1
Grassley, Hon. Charles E., a U.S. Senator from the State of Iowa,
prepared statement............................................. 88
Kohl, Hon. Herbert, a U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin... 4
Leahy, Hon. Patrick, a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont.... 6
Schumer, Hon. Charles E., a U.S. Senator from the State of New
York........................................................... 8
Specter, Hon. Arlen, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 19
Thurmond, Hon. Strom, a U.S. Senator from the State of South
Carolina....................................................... 5
WITNESSES
Cooper, Mark N., Director of Research, Consumer Federation of
America, Washington, DC........................................ 44
Edwards, Hon. John, a U.S. Senator from the State of North
Carolina....................................................... 16
Goodwin, James E., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, United
Airlines, Chicago, IL.......................................... 23
Helms, Hon. Jesse, a U.S. Senator from the State of North
Carolina....................................................... 10
Johnson, Robert L., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DC Air,
Washington, DC................................................. 33
Kahn, Alfred, Emeritus Porfessor of Political Economy, Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY......................................... 21
Neeleman, David, Chief Executive Officer, Jetblue Airways
Corporation, New York, NY...................................... 39
Santorum, Hon. Rick, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 14
Wellstone, Hon. Paul, a U.S. Senator from the State of Minnesota. 13
Wolf, Stephen M., Chairman, US Airways Group, Inc., Arlington, VA 28
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Responses of James E. Goodwin to Questions from:
Senator DeWine............................................... 77
Senator Grassley............................................. 78
Senator Kohl................................................. 79
Senator Leahy................................................ 80
Responses of United/US Airway to Questions from:
Senator Kohl................................................. 81
Senator Grassley............................................. 82
Responses of Stephen M. Wolf to Questions from:
Senator Leahy................................................ 84
Senator DeWine............................................... 84
Responses of Robert Johnson to Questions from:
Senator Kohl................................................. 85
Senator Leahy................................................ 86
Senator DeWine............................................... 87
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Perkins, Ed, Consumer Advocate for the American Society of Travel
Agents, Inc., prepared statement............................... 88
Howlett, C.A., Senior Vice President on behalf of America West
Airlines, Inc., prepared statement............................. 89
AIRLINE COMPETITION IN THE WAKE OF THE PROPOSED US AIRWAYS/UNITED
MERGER
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2000
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Antitrust, Business Rights,
and Competition
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:09 a.m., in
room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Mike DeWine
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Also present: Senators Schumer, Leahy, Thurmond, Kohl,
Specter, and Torricelli.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE DeWINE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF OHIO
Senator DeWine. Good morning. Welcome to the Judiciary
Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Business Rights, and
Competition, for today's hearing examining the proposed United
Airlines/US Airways merger.
A little over a month ago, this subcommittee held an
oversight hearing on aviation competition, and while we knew it
was a timely hearing, I have to admit I did not expect to be
examining this industry again quite so soon, but here we are
today. We are here today again to examine this time the
proposed merger between United and US Airways. This is a merger
of enormous importance, not just on its own terms but because
of the impact it may have on the airline industry as a whole.
In its own right, of course, the deal is very significant.
United is the world's largest airline and it has offered to pay
more than $11 billion for US Airways, the sixth-largest airline
in the country. The merger would add approximately 560 routes
to United's already extensive system, practically double the
number of United's daily flights, and give the airline
approximately 27 percent of all domestic passenger seats. To
put it simply, this largest and strongest of airlines would be
an even larger and stronger competitor in the world airline
market.
This added size would offer certain benefits to some
consumers, some consumers who will have access to a larger
network with greater flight frequency and more convenient
travel options. In addition, the combined airline may extend
its network to provide greater service in certain locations
that are currently underserved.
Of course, as with many mergers, the deal poses a number of
competitive problems, as well. United and US Airways currently
go head to head in a number of markets and at a number of
airports, mostly in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic area. That
head-to-head competition would end with this merger. This
merger would decrease competition in those areas. Some have
argued that competition would be significantly decreased on
hundreds of routes, including some where United and US Airways
are currently the only competitors. For example, in my home
State of Ohio, this deal will eliminate nonstop competition on
routes from Dayton and Columbus to Dulles Airport here in
Washington.
United and US Airways have attempted to minimize some of
the most obvious problems up front by proposing to spin off a
number of routes, slots, and gates at Reagan National Airport
to a new airline, which would be called DC Air. This airline
would compete with the newly merged United Airlines and would,
at least in theory, limit the anticompetitive impact of this
merger in the Washington, DC., area.
Many within the aviation industry have criticized the DC
Air spinoff. Critics believe that the new airline would be too
reliant on United and US Airways for employees and equipment
and thus would not compete aggressively against United. Some
argue that competition would be better served by allocating the
DC Air slots to other competitors or by having DC Air bid for
those slots independently. Obviously, the competitive vigor of
DC Air is of critical importance to the United/US Airways
merger plan and we intend to examine this issue carefully
today. We have Robert Johnson of DC Air here with us today and
we look forward to discussing these issues with him.
Although concerns have been raised about the details of the
proposed merger, and as mentioned, many people are critical of
the DC Air spinoff, those concerns pale in comparison to the
big-picture implications of this merger. The Justice Department
can and will look at the details of this deal. The Justice
Department will examine the route-by-route details of this
merger and should force divestiture whenever and wherever
appropriate. The Justice Department should look carefully at DC
Air to decide whether it can be a legitimate competitive force
in the market and should, therefore, act accordingly.
But the most important element of this deal and the issue
that concerns me the most is the impact this merger will have
on the structure of airline competition in the future. United
Airlines is already the largest airline in the country. Despite
its size, however, the other domestic airlines are currently
large enough to compete with it. American Airlines and Delta,
the second and third largest U.S. airlines, have been able to
stay within shouting distance of United and provide significant
competition. Northwest, Continental, and US Airways are also
large enough to provide a competitive alternative for
consumers.
But if this deal is approved, the competitive scales would
tip dramatically in favor of United. US Airways will be
eliminated as a competitor and United will suddenly become
much, much bigger than its closest competitors. Infact, United
would be roughly 50 percent larger than its next largest competitor.
The United network would effectively cover almost all the domestic
market, further enhancing its dominance.
In these circumstances, the other airlines will almost be
forced to react, and the most logical reaction will be more
mergers. If this deal is approved, we are likely to see rapid
consolidation within the industry and could easily see the
domestic aviation market shrink from six major players to three
major players in a very short period of time.
The competitive implications of such dramatic consolidation
are very significant and must be examined as part of our
oversight responsibility. We must examine the impact of such a
consolidation on consumers, on smaller cities, smaller markets,
and smaller airports. We need to consider whether such
consolidation might lead to further entrenchment of fortress
hubs and whether the remaining airlines would compete with each
other vigorously, or as some fear, merely carve up the market
and allow one airline to dominate each region in the country.
We need to consider whether start-up and smaller airlines would
be able to compete in such an economic environment.
Further, we must consider the impact of such consolidation
on existing hub airports. In Ohio, for example, we have major
hubs in Cleveland and in Cincinnati, and I know that my
constituents worry about whether both hubs will be maintained
if other airlines consolidate. This is an important issue
everywhere, because when hubs close, passengers lose convenient
access to flights, and just as important, lose the hub-to-hub
competition that helps to discipline prices on one-stop
flights. Accordingly, we must examine the implications of
possible hub consolidation and determine whether or not such
consolidation will harm consumers.
Of course, the answers to all these questions are, to some
extent, speculative. We cannot know for sure how other airlines
will react to this merger, and we cannot predict with certainty
that consolidation will lead to consumer harm. But we can be
sure that the proposed merger between United and US Airways
will have a lasting and significant impact on the competitive
environment of the U.S. aviation industry and that we need to
examine more than just its specific effect on individual
airline routes. It is critical that policy makers and the
enforcement agencies scrutinize this proposal carefully and
extensively to ensure that competition is preserved within the
industry and that consumers are protected from the impact of
excessive consolidation.
Now, before I turn to the ranking minority member of this
subcommittee, Senator Kohl, I would like to state just one more
thing. I have been chairing this subcommittee now for
approximately 3 years, and during that time we have examined
mergers in a wide range of industries. And almost every time we
examine a proposed merger, I hear the same explanation: My
competitors are getting bigger so I need to get bigger.
I will be very candid. I am worried if this deal goes
forward that soon we will be right back in this room again for
another merger hearing, listening to a different airline
executive tell us the same thing. United is getting bigger so I
need to get bigger, as well. The problem is that bigger
airlines mean fewer airlines and that is not necessarily good
for consumers, and if this deal is bad for consumers, then I
have a problem with it.
Accordingly, today, Senator Kohl and I are sending a letter
to Joel Klein of the Antitrust Division asking him to carefully
scrutinize this deal. We are asking him to scrutinize the deal
and to pay special attention to the impact it may have on
future consolidation in the airline industry.
Now let me turn to the ranking member of the subcommittee,
Senator Kohl.
STATEMENT OF HON. HERBERT KOHL, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF WISCONSIN
Senator Kohl. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the last few
years, our subcommittee has held several hearings on the wave
of competition now sweeping many areas of the national economy,
including, most notably, the telecommunications and media
industries. Now the airline industry looks like it is poised to
jump on this merger bandwagon, and even if United/US Airways
does not open the door to what many predict will be a floodgate
of airline mergers, the combination of these two major airlines
will clearly create an aviation giant. The merged carrier will
have nearly 1,000 airplanes making 6,500 daily flights to
nearly every city in the United States and many cities
overseas, offering nearly twice as many flights as its closest
competitor, American.
For these reasons, the burden is squarely on you, Mr.
Goodwin and Mr. Wolf, to demonstrate to us on behalf of the
American people that your deal will enhance competition and not
harm consumers, and frankly, I am skeptical that you can.
To be sure, we recognize that this merger has the potential
to benefit travelers by giving them access to the expanded
route network to be offered by the combined airline.
Nonetheless, it also raises serious questions that you will
need to answer. Will the combined airline's dominance at key
hub cities, such as Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
Washington/Baltimore, and New York City, lead to higher fares
and reduced service in these markets? Willthe combined company
reduce the frequency and quality of service to many smaller non-hub
cities, such as Milwaukee, Buffalo, or Burlington?
Perhaps more importantly, is this deal likely to lead to
further consolidation as your competitors decide that they need
to merge to compete with the breadth of your operations? In my
opinion, if we reach the point where we get down to only three
major carriers, then that would be a disaster for consumers,
and that is why Senator DeWine and I have sent a letter today
to Joel Klein urging the Justice Department to consider any
further airline consolidations as part of its evaluation of
this deal.
Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Wolf, you have already recognized that
there is one market where the level of concentration caused by
this merger is unacceptably high, Washington/Baltimore, and you
have therefore decided to spin off many of United's and US
Airways' routes operating out of Washington's Reagan National
Airport to a new airline, DC Air, to be operated by Robert
Johnson.
Now, we all respect the business acumen, skills, and
independence that Mr. Johnson has displayed in building BET
into a media powerhouse. Nonetheless, serious questions have
been raised about the viability of DC Air as an independent
competitor. We understand that it plans to ``wet lease'' most
of its fleet from United and US Airways. This means that in
addition to leasing the actual airplanes, the pilots, ground
crews, and even management personnel will be United/US Airways
employees. In this situation, how willing--and if willing, how
able--will DC Air be to aggressively challenge and undercut
United on price or service? We hope you can address this
panel's doubts on this score.
Several weeks ago, this subcommittee held a hearing
regarding the current state of airline competition. No one knew
of this deal at that time. One of our witnesses, Alfred Kahn,
widely regarded as the father of airline deregulation, pointed
out how deregulation has brought consumers many benefits, and I
agree. But he also believes that for deregulation to work,
there must be a sufficient number of competitive alternatives
so that consumers have choice when it comes to air travel, and
I agree here also, because as the chart accompanying me here
today indicates, you typically have lower prices when you have
more competitors.
Fortunately, we have a terrific panel of witnesses here
today to help sort out these issues. We are especially
interested to hear if you three, Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Wolf, and Mr.
Johnson, can sustain your burden to convince us that
competitive choices will remain in air travel even after this
merger, and we will give you every opportunity to make your
case and so we look forward to hearing your views. I thank you,
Mr. Chairman.
Senator DeWine. Senator Kohl, thank you very much.
Let me turn now to Senator Thurmond.
STATEMENT OF HON. STROM THURMOND; A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Senator Thurmond. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr.
Chairman, I am pleased that we are holding this hearing today
on airline competition. United, the world's largest airline,
recently proposed purchasing US Airways for $4.3 billion. The
combined company would control about 27 percent of the U.S.
market and be about 50 percent larger than its next largest
competitor.
We must consider whether bigger is better in this case, and
the answer is not clear. It would be easier and more convenient
for travelers to reach more destinations on the combined
airline, especially with United's focus on the West and US
Airways' focus on the East.
However, this convenience may also result in higher prices
because of fewer choices and less competition. For example,
after the merger, the combined airline would control about half
of the nonstop daily flights and about half of the flight
destinations in the capital of my State, in Columbia, SC.
Indeed, the most significant question is whether this
merger will lead to a wave of consolidation in the airline
industry. It is highly possible that other airlines will try to
merge to keep up with the largest airline in the world, and we
have already heard rumors of other possible mergers. Widespread
consolidation in the airline industry probably would not be a
positive development today. It is clear that having only a few
players in an industry is not in the best interest of
consumers. Robust competition has been the reason airline
prices have historically been low since deregulation. It is
critical to maintain vigorous competition in our airports,
including smaller cities.
I welcome our witnesses to discuss this merger and its
potential implication on the industry as a whole.
Mr. Chairman, I have another engagement.
Senator DeWine. Senator, thank you very much.
Senator DeWine. Senator Leahy.
STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. LEAHY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF VERMONT
Senator Leahy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
calling this hearing. In fact, I appreciate the hearings that
you and Senator Kohl have had. I also appreciate, if I might
say, this would probably bring about a recall petition by the
Republican party in Ohio, but I also appreciate the evenhanded
way both of you have handled this committee. I think this is a
serious one where the evenhandedness is going to be important.
There seems to be a mega-merger in a different industry
almost every week. Current economic forces are driving rampant
consolidation, I understand that, and it should be no surprise
to anybody that the Airline industry is on the bandwagon. But I
think if you have consolidation in this industry, you need some
very special attention. Air carriers are an essential part of
the national transportation network. For rural communities,
like in my State, they are a critical element for economic
viability. The airline industry also heavily relies upon an
infrastructure paid for by passengers, by local communities,
and by the Federal Government.
Every significant increase in concentration in this
industry has to be carefully examined in terms of competition,
accessibility, and, of course, what most consumers see, air
fares. So we are here to consider the proposed merger of US
Airways and United Airlines.
Now, I see, and I know they will be testifying, Jim Goodwin
and Stephen Wolf. Both of these are highly respected CEO's who
run excellent companies, and the companies will argue that
economic forces require them to merge, and they also argue that
they are a good fit, except for one city, and that one city,
though, is the Nation's capital.
But the merger has important implications in other
communities at the other end of the line. While US Airways and
United have proposed to resolve concerns in the Washington hub
market, I have serious concerns about the effect of the merger
on Burlington, VT. Even with the spinoff of DC Air, United
Airlines will control 74 percent of the market share in and out
of Burlington. So like on that millionaire show, at the
beginning, you have three lifelines. Well, in Vermont, we have
three or four lifelines out of town, but this could be taking
one of them away. As the host of that show says, you take away
one of the lifelines, you get in a little bit of trouble. My
gut and years of experience, including 25 years of flying back
and forth between Washington and Burlington, tell me this
merger could send us in the wrong direction.
And I am very concerned that Vermonters have to drive to
other States just to get reasonable air fares. I mean, look at
this chart. On this, you can go from--I will take it from
Washington, DC. You can go to cities near Burlington for $88--
Albany, Hartford, Manchester--on a 7-day advance. It costs $735
to go to Burlington. Now, if you want to go a little further,
London, you can cut about $300 off that. It is $419 to London--
and that is not New London, CT, or New London, NH, it is
London, England--or $402 to Los Angeles. So $400 to Los
Angeles, $419 to London, or $735 to Burlington, or $88 to
places that are just a few miles away.
Now, what I ask is, why does a Vermonter have to travel to
New Hampshire or Connecticut or New York, nice States so that
they are, just to get an affordable flight out of town? I
mention Burlington because Burlington is our main hub. We have
thousands of people who fly in and out of there every day, a
lot of them business travelers.
Now, let us see what happens if you merge. Here is what you
have. Here we have Vermont passengers. United Airlines/US
Airways does 75 percent of it, and Vermont seats, 76 percent,
and Vermont departures, 72 percent. Now, that shows where there
should be competition because that shows where the demand is.
They are going to end up with a pretty significant market
share here. We have actually seen a gradual increase in the
number of flights, a gradual lowering of prices, and the
airlines had been going in the right direction. In the fall, we
are going to have JetBlue flying in from Kennedy Airport. But I
cannot understand how it could cost less than $735 on a 7-day
advance if you take away one of the airlines. We have J.J.
Hamilton and Joe McNeil from Burlington here today. They need
to have these answers.
The employees--I should say this, incidentally. I fly all
over the country. The employees of United Airlines and US
Airways there in Burlington, VT, are the finest people, the
nicest people you could ever have in any airline anywhere in
the country, but they ought to know about it.
I will put the rest of my statement in the record, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator DeWine. It will be made a part of the record.
Senator Leahy. But I am very concerned about this, as you
can probably tell.
Senator DeWine. Senator Leahy, thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Senator Leahy follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy
Mr. Chairman, thank you for calling this hearing on airline
competition. There seems to be a megamerger in a different industry
almost every week.
Current economic forces are driving rampant consolidation across-
the-board. And to the surprise of no one, the airline industry is on
the bandwagon. But consolidation in this industry deserves special
attention. Air carriers are an essential part of the national
transportation network and for rural communities they are a critical
element for economic viability.
The airline industry also heavily relies upon an infrastructure
paid for by passengers, local communities and the federal government.
Every significant increase in concentration in this industry must be
carefully examined in terms of competition, accessibility and, of
course, airfares.
We are here this morning to consider the proposed merger of United
Airlines and US Airways. Both are fine companies whose CEOs are highly
respected in the airline industry. The companies argue that economic
forces require them to merge. They also argue that they are a good
fit--except for one city which happens to be the nation's capital.
However, this merger has important implications in other
communities--at the other ``end of the line.'' While US Airways and
United have proposed to resolve concerns in the Washington hub market,
I have serious concerns about the effect of the merger on Burlington,
Vermont. Even with the spin off of DC Air, United Airlines will control
74 percent of the market share in and out of Burlington.
It reminds me of that Millionaire show. At the very beginning you
have three lifelines. Well, in Vermont we have three or four lifelines
out of town and with this merger, we are taking away one of them. As
Regis Philbin would tell you, when you take away lifeline, you are in
trouble.
My gut and years of experience tell me that this merger would send
us in the wrong direction. Also, I am sick and tired of the fact that
Vermonters have to drive to other states just to get reasonable air
fares.
Just look at the charts. From the Washington area, you can get to
cities in states bordering Vermont for $88 round-trip, just by calling
one week in advance. To fly from Burlington, an back, it would cost
$735.
Why should a Vermonter have to travel to New Hampshire or
Connecticut or New York, just to get an affordable flight?
My second chart demonstrates how much market share United, merged
with US Air, will end up with in Burlington, even taking into account
DC Air.
In Burlington, we have actually seen a gradual increase in the
number of flights and a gradual lowering of prices. The airlines have
been moving in the right direction there. In the fall, we will have
JetBlue flying in from Kennedy airport to introduce more competition in
the market. These small steps to get more flights and more options to
Burlington could be cancelled out by a giant leap in the opposite
direction. If it costs $735 to fly from Burlington, round trip, how
could it possibly cost any less if you take one of the airlines away?
I need a sound answer to that question as do J.J. Hamilton, the
Director of the Burlington Airport, and Joe McNeil, the city attorney
in Burlington, who are here today.
United and US Airways want to spin off a new airline, DC Air, that
will fly out of National Airport. Robert Johnson is a great businessman
and I wish him the best in this new endeavor. However, DC Air will find
that leasing is expensive and I understand that the new airline fleet
will rely heavily on commuter and regional jets, which might limit the
ability of this airline to become a low-cost carrier.
Frankly for Burlington, Vermont, and other ``end point''
destinations in the Northeast such as Syracuse and Albany, the spin-off
of DC Air is not an answer to solving the market dominance that United
will have in our communities.
Mr. Chairman, I will have a number of questions for all the
witnesses for the record.
Senator DeWine. Senator Schumer.
STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. SCHUMER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF NEW YORK
Senator Schumer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I want to
thank you and Senator Kohl for the courtesy of being here today
as a member of the Judiciary Committee. Also, I agree with Pat
Leahy in the fine way you have both together conducted this
committee.
Let me thank you for holding this hearing on the proposed
merger of US Airways and United Airlines. The issue is vital to
New York, which, due to heavy local presence of US Air, will be
highly affected by the proposed merger. The merger represents
both an opportunity and a danger for upstate New York and I
intend to fight to make it an opportunity. I plan to be
aggressive in ensuring that airline competition in upstate New
York continues to grow, not decline, under this or any future
merger.
Mr. Chairman, my general view is that in an economy that is
based on free market principles, the government should tread
cautiously when its actions, such as disapproving an airline
merger, have a major impact on an industry sector. At the same
time, the hallmark of free markets is competition and a true
test of whether this merger should be approved as is, should be
altered, or should be rejected is whether the result would
ensure competition for consumers and businesses.
For me, the key question is whether such a merger would
have a negative impact on regional air service, particularly in
upstate New York, where US Airways currently dominates the
market, and by most people's accounts has served them poorly.
According to local airport authorities, US Airways controls 38
percent of the air market in Albany, 39 in Buffalo, 43 in
Rochester, 40 in Syracuse. United Airlines represents 9 percent
in Buffalo, 15 in Rochester, 8 in Syracuse, and 9 in Albany. So
a new merged airline would control 50 percent of the market in
each of New York's major upstate cities, and in Binghamton, the
new airline would control a staggering 90 percent of the
market.
These cities are already saddled with some of the highest
airfares in the country. Today, the average price of a round-
trip US Airways ticket from Washington to Albany costs $430.
Buffalo, it is $342; Syracuse, $398; and $358 to Rochester, and
that is nothing when you compare it to the walk-up fares. The
price of a walk-up round-trip on US Airways from National to
both Albany and Buffalo is $758; Rochester, $692; Syracuse,
$792, and the answer why is simple, no competition.
When my constituent from New York, Dr. Kahn, developed this
whole plan for deregulation, when it came to the two New York
City airports, to National Airport, and to O'Hare Airport,
there was no competition because there were slots and the
airlines have used the slots as their own personal property and
they have not served the public interest.
So I am concerned that this proposed merger may make a bad
situation even worse in upstate New York. I believe the merger
agreement as currently proposed could lead to even higher fares
and poorer service to the upstate cities like Albany and
Buffalo and Rochester and Syracuse, and smaller cities like
Utica, Binghamton, Elmira, and Jamestown could also face fare
increases and reduced services. Let me give you a couple of
examples.
Daily flights from Dulles to Albany would be cut under the
merger from 9 to 6; Buffalo, 11 to 8; Rochester, 11 to 7;
Syracuse, 9 to 6. And while the number of DC Air flights from
National to upstate would stay the same, I understand that they
plan to use 50-seat regional jets instead of the typical 112-
seat or 142-seat jets currently used by US Air.
Now, I have the highest respect, as my fellow panelists do,
for DC Air's new CEO, Robert Johnson, who is without dispute a
highly successful and public spirited entrepreneur. I look
forward to working with him. But let me say up front that I
have been a longstanding critic of US Airways' high prices and
poor service and I welcome efforts to do better. But I fear
that DC Air may not have a cost structure that enables it to
provide true low-cost service.
The new carrier plans to use regional jets, which can have
a higher per-passenger operating cost than larger jets. The
practice that you mentioned, I think, Mr. Chairman and Senator
Kohl, of wet leasing and other services from outside high-cost
carriers can add additional costs to base operations.
And I share the concerns that many have already voiced
about the specifics of the proposal to grant 222 of US Airways'
extremely valuable take-off and landing slots from National
Airport. These slots represent as much as a quarter to a third
of National's total slot inventory, and while United is now
proposing to sell them, I believe they are a public asset.
I am sympathetic to the argument that DC Air, AirTran, and
other new entrants and low-cost carriers have made that in
order to compete with the majors of National, they need a
critical mass of slots. I agree that perhaps DOT's traditional
method of doling out just a few slots at a time to a diverse
bunch of small, undercapitalized carriers, only to see them all
fail, may not be the best way to go. But boy, oh boy, what
happens if a year later the new airline decides to sell their
slots, which they can do under the present agreement, so that
someone else might take these slots and fly to Dallas or
Chicago or another city that is well-served with competition.
We would all regret any decision if that happened.
Competition does work. JetBlue, New York's new low-cost
carrier, persuaded me and others that they needed a large
number of slots in New York to effectively serve upstate, and
they are serving my good friend Pat Leahy's city in Vermont, as
well, Burlington. So we fought to convince DOT to grant an
unprecedented 75 slots at Kennedy in return for the carrier's
promise to serve Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, and JetBlue
has delivered on its promise. It is overwhelmingly successful.
It has even forced US Air to lower some of its prices, which
they said their cost structure would not allow them to do,
until JetBlue and good old fashioned American competition came.
I want to follow that successful model of JetBlue in this
merger and want whatever carrier receives those slots at
National, which are worth their weight in gold, to guarantee
they will provide competitive service out of National Airport
to Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.
So in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I hope that DOJ and DOT
will take this opportunity to look at the broader question of
airline competition. I am not at this point opposing this
merger. I will oppose it if the interests of upstate New York
are not protected, and thus far in the agreement, they are not.
Thank you for holding this hearing and I look forward to
working with the committee, the airlines, and the
administration during this important process.
Senator DeWine. Senator Schumer, thank you very much.
I think we can see the importance of this hearing and the
importance of this proposed merger by the fact that we have
four of our colleagues here today to testify, which is,
frankly, over the 30 hearings that Senator Kohl and I have
held, we have not had such an amount of interest from our
colleagues and I think it does speak to the importance of this
merger.
Let me start from my left, and we will go from my left to
my right, with the Honorable Jesse Helms. Senator Helms, thank
you very much for joining us.
STATEMENT OF HON. JESSE HELMS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Senator Helms. Mr. Chairman, are you sure you do not want
to use the early bird approach? He was sitting here before I
got here.
Senator DeWine. Well, he was pointing to you, Senator, and
said you should go first.
Senator Wellstone. I always agree with Jesse Helms.
[Laughter.]
Senator Helms. If anybody believes that, I have a little
swampland down in Eastern North Carolina I want to sell you.
But he is a good friend, really. I wish he would do something I
could agree with. [Laughter.]
Senator Leahy. Jesse, he just did. He yielded to you.
Senator DeWine. He yielded to you, Senator, so maybe we can
all agree on that.
Senator Helms. OK. If we struggle long enough, we will, I
am sure. Seriously, Mr. Wellstone, I was teasing and I know you
were, too.
I do not come here pretending to be an expert on rates,
what they should be or what they are not. I have some problem
with the rates from Raleigh-Durham to Washington. When I came
to Washington, you could buy a round-trip for two times $39, or
you could buy a single trip for $39. But you look at the cost
of gasoline and salaries and all the rest now, and I do not
propose to be an expert on operating an airline and I do not
come here as such, but I want to make clear that as one who
remembers Tom Davis--I do not know whether Senator Edwards is
old enough to remember or not, but US Air was once Piedmont
Airlines, which was founded in North Carolina and founded by a
great friend of mine, and then it became US Air and there it
went.
Of course, it is good that you examine the impacts that
this proposed merger may have within the airline industry, and,
of course, the business community, and more importantly, I
suppose, the traveling public. Now, I have a hunch that it is
going to work out in a positive way because I know the people
involved and you folks either know them or you will know them
because you are going to be dealing with them on various
questions that will be raised in this hearing and otherwise.
It is important that this proposal, of course, be given
careful study at DOJ and DOT. This has been done in many
previous mergers and I think that will always continue.
Now, what I believe the two agencies, Justice and the
Department of Transportation, will find is that compared to
some media speculation that harm to consumers and competition
may result, this merger is going to prove to be, in large
measure, exceedingly beneficial to the traveling public and the
U.S. economy.
Like you, I have had visits with the principals involved
and I have talked with them and we have talked with candor. US
Airways is the largest carrier serving North Carolina and one
of the 20 top employers in my State. After examining the
details made available to me, I have concluded that this will
be beneficial for the citizens of North Carolina and to the
competitive marketplace in general, but having said that, I
congratulate and commend you for going into this in some
detail.
US Airways as now constituted serves Asheville,
Fayetteville, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Wilmington, and, of
course, Senator Edwards' and my hometown of Raleigh-Durham. Of
course, its principal operation is its hub in Charlotte.
By the way, I have got to brag a little bit. Charlotte, NC,
is now the second-largest banking center in the United States,
and I never thought that I would see that day, either, because
I used to be the executive head of the North Carolina Bankers
Association and Wachovia was by far the biggest bank in terms
of deposits at that time. Wachovia is no longer there, but it
is still a strong bank.
US Airways, I am told, employs about 10,000 people in North
Carolina with an annual payroll of nearly $700 million and with
expenditures of over $1 billion a year.
As I stated at the outset, I think this is going to prove
to be a positive development, but it is your job to decide
whether what I think is, indeed, a fact. But I believe you are
going to find out, knowing the people who are involved and
their wish to operate above board, I believe you are going to
be satisfied with this with perhaps some adjustments.
I have two or three pages more that I have put together,
but having chaired a committee for a while around this place, I
am going to ask unanimous consent that the balance of my
statement be printed in the record.
Senator DeWine. Senator, that will be made a part of the
record.
Senator Helms. I thank you, sir, and I yield to whomever is
next.
Senator DeWine. We appreciate your testimony, Senator
Helms, very much.
[The prepared statement of Senator Helms follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Jesse Helms
Mr. Helms. Chairman DeWine, Senator Kohl and other distinguished
members of this sub-committee, thank you for including me to
participate in your hearing this morning regarding the proposed merger
of US Airways and United Airlines.
It is good that you will examine the impacts that this proposed
merger may have within the airline industry, business community and
more importantly on the traveling public.
I believe that the impact will be a positive one for all concerned.
It is important that this proposal be given careful study by the
Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation. This has
been done regarding many previous mergers.
What I believe the two agencies will find is that, contrary to some
media speculation that harm to consumers and competition may result,
this merger will be exceedingly beneficial to the traveling public and
the US economy.
Mr. Chairman, US Airways is the largest carrier serving North
Carolina, and one of the top 20 employers in my state. After examining
the details made available to me, I have concluded that this will be
very beneficial for the citizens of North Carolina and to the
competitive marketplace in general.
US Airways serves Asheville, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Wilmington,
Winston-Salem, and Raleigh-Durham. Of course its principal operation is
its hub in Charlotte (the second largest banking center in the United
States, by the way) offering nearly 500 daily flights. US Airways
employs some 10,000 people in North Carolina with an annual payroll of
nearly $700 million and with expenditures of more than $1 billion each
year.
As I stated at the outset, I consider this proposed merger to be a
positive development for North Carolina but, obviously the principle
concern in a merger of this size is the possible impact on jobs. I'm
gratified that all 40,000 US Airways employees will be offered
comparable positions in the new airline.
Additionally, this merger will help North Carolina's burgeoning
economy grow by providing more flights to more domestic and worldwide
destinations. Having a hub in Charlotte has indeed helped the Queen
City's growth and the linkage of Charlotte to United's global network
will positively impact the Carolinas and the rest of the Southeast.
US Airways has a domestic North-South service structure with some
routes to the Midwest, Rocky Mountains, and West Coast. While I admire
the efforts of US Airways to expand to Europe from Charlotte, it is my
understanding that US Airways will in the foreseeable future not see
further international expansion. Links with United's system will give
Charlotte and the Carolinas access to the economic centers on the West
Coast, Europe, and Asia.
Upon completion of the merger United has plans, I'm told, to offer
non-stop or one-stop service from Charlotte to 249 domestic and
international destinations, immediately adding non-stop service to
other high technology centers in Seattle and San Francisco. This will
amount to 75 additional destinations over US Airways' service today--
and 186 more than are currently available on United.
Mr. Chairman, the merger of US Airways and United Airlines will
bring substantial economic benefits to the communities throughout the
Carolinas.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, and members of this distinguished
committee.
Senator DeWine. Senator Wellstone.
STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL WELLSTONE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF MINNESOTA
Senator Wellstone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator
Kohl, Senator Leahy. I said to Senator Santorum and say to
Senator Edwards, I am going to be very brief and make three
quick points.
I actually do not think--I appreciate the comments of my
colleague, I really do, and I think actually the question is
not so much the individuals. I think we have got some very good
people that are in management positions. But I think, Mr.
Chairman, I share your viewpoint. It has to do with the
question of structure, of competition or lack of competition. I
think that is the real question. What I am worried about are
mergers begetting mergers.
I think this hearing today is going to be viewed with a
sense of history. Now, I am not trying to be melodramatic. I
mean that very seriously. I was here testifying on Viacom-CBS
and I have been on the floor. I have probably given too many
speeches, Senator Kohl, about the ways in which conglomerates
have muscled their way to the dinner table in agriculture and
have pushed producers out. I worry about the concentration of
power in telecommunications because that is the question of
flow of information in a democracy. I worried about the Mobil-
Exxon merger. I mean, I feel like I have written enough letters
and given enough speeches and talked about this over and over
again for the last couple of years.
But I really do believe, and it is interesting, I said to
Senator Santorum, it is interesting, the number of people that
are concerned about this, and I think the thing that unites us
is our concern about competition. I mean, I do not think it is
a good thing for this economy or a good thing for this country
to have such concentrated economic power. This is a free
enterprise system. We want to have some free enterprise in the
free enterprise system. We want to have the competition.
So I think this hearing is part of a larger question, and
the reason I think this hearing is going to be viewed with a
sense of history is that I predict over the next couple of
years this whole question of these mergers and consolidations
is going to become a burning issue of American politics and a
terribly important question for all of us.
And I think the problem, and I am going to give a Minnesota
example and that will be my last point, the problem is, and you
said it, Senator DeWine, it is kind of like everybody says, I
did not want to do it but I had to do it in order to compete,
and then it happens, and then somebody else merges and they
say, we had to do it to compete, and the mergers beget the
mergers beget the mergers. It seems to me that somebody,
somewhere, sometime, somehow, someplace has to say, enough.
Now, if, in fact, the United and US Air deal goes through,
we now have discussions taking place between Northwest Airlines
in Minnesota and American Airlines, and what is the argument
they are making? We are going to have to merge in order to
compete. And people in Minnesota, and I think you hear this
from different Senators representing different people in
different States, are saying, what does this mean for our
future? Will we still have a hub airport? The employees say,
are we still going to have our jobs? How is this going to work?
The business community says, how is this going to affect our
ability to travel? What are going to be the consequences for
the people of the State of Minnesota?
I am here to say that I think that people in Minnesota
understand very well the dangers of these mergers and this
consolidation as it affects our communities, the people in our
State, the jobs, you name it.
So I will take a somewhat different position. I have
certainly sent a letter, and I am so pleased that the two of
you have, given your positions on this committee, to the
Justice Department, to Joel Klein saying, carefully, carefully
scrutinize this proposed merger. But for my own part, I believe
that if the Justice Department is to prevent such a disastrous
wave of irreversible consolidation in the airline industry, I
believe it has to move now to block the proposed merger of
United and US Airways. I want to be up front about that. As a
Senator from Minnesota, that is the position that I am taking
today in this hearing and I am going to do everything I can
with my voice and with what ability that I have as a Senator to
try to stop this merger from taking place. Thank you.
Senator DeWine. Senator Wellstone, thank you very much.
Senator Santorum, thank you for joining us.
STATEMENT OF HON. RICK SANTORUM, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF PENNSYLVANIA
Senator Santorum. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to first
thank you for having this hearing and I want to share Senator
Helms' comments that it is your responsibility to take a look
at this and I am certainly glad that you are. I am going to
take a look at this. I am not an expert in antitrust. I am
somewhat of an expert on Pennsylvania, so I am going to take a
look at it from the aspect of how this affects Pennsylvania.
Frankly, I see a lot of pluses. I see some potential downsides
and I just wanted to share those with you.
Number one, we have 17,000 US Airways employees in
Pennsylvania. I think that may be the largest concentration of
any State of US Airways employees. We have two hubs, both
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. So there probably is not a State
that is going to be more impacted by this than the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania. So I do have some concerns about that.
Having said that, we have had US Airways be the dominant
carrier in Pennsylvania for quite some time now. US Airways has
had its troubled past. I mean, there has been some financial
difficulty in the past and it has always been sort of a concern
of those of us in Pennsylvania as to the future of US Airways
from an economic standpoint as well as the employees' concern
about the long-term future of US Airways.
The fact of the matter is that with United now acquiring US
Airways, that, I think, increases the stability, at least from
our perspective, of the air carrier in Pennsylvania serving the
market, and certainly I know in talking to many of the
employees, they are actually pretty pleased about the fact that
now they feel like they are with a carrier that is going to be
there for the long haul, and with the guarantees of employment
that have been made, I think a lot of the employees in my State
are very happy with that.
With respect to service and fares, Pennsylvania has been a
State that has been subject to having a dominant carrier and
two hubs, which means relatively high fares. The exchange of
that is we have a lot of good service. We have great service
out of Pittsburgh for the size of the city. Philadelphia has
good service, frankly should have better service given the size
of the city, and one of the promises that have been made in
this merger is, in fact, to expand dramatically, particularly
internationally, the service out of Philadelphia, which I think
will be beneficial to our region and also expand cargo.
From a point of view of a user, setting aside fare, and I
just make comments for the committee and I heard Senator
Schumer talk about fares, our fares are already high. We
already have, in a sense, very limited competition within
Pennsylvania already, and so I do not see this merger really
fundamentally changing that. I look at it as, are there any
pluses added to it, and from what I have seen is a discussion
of an expansion of service in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,
particularly the overseas service, which in Pittsburgh is
something we desperately need and want.
So I see this as, again, a lot of potential upsides with
respect to service and, frankly, very limited downside given
the history of already having high fares and a dominant carrier
in the Commonwealth, I do not see much difference here with
respect to that pricing structure and the competition in the
Commonwealth.
The biggest concern, frankly, I have is not an economic
concern but it is the major concern I have and that is the
impact on several thousand people at a maintenance shop in
Pittsburgh and at a reservations and training facility in
Pittsburgh, and I have talked to both of the CEO's about that.
That is my number one concern about this, as to whether there
will continue to be a maintenance facility in Pittsburgh. I am
making no bones about it that that is the principal concern I
have and want to make sure that that concern is communicated as
to the impact on jobs in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
So from your standpoint, obviously, that is not a concern.
But from my standpoint, that is the major concern I have and
certainly will be a factor in the long term, whether I support
this measure or not. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator DeWine. Senator Santorum, thank you very much for
your statement.
Senator Santorum. I have a statement for the record, if I
can just put that in.
Senator DeWine. Your statement will, Senator Santorum, be
made a part of the record, and all written statements that we
have received will, of course, be made, without objection, a
part of the record.
[The prepared statement of Senator Santorum follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Rick Santorum
Thank you Chairman DeWine. I appreciate the opportunity to provide
testimony today on the proposed merger of United Airlines and US
Airways. As you know, my particular interest in this issue lies in the
17,000 Pennsylvanians employed by US Airways and the presence of two of
the airline's hubs in Pennsylvania.
I understand that the Subcommittee's task today is to examine the
effects of this proposed merger on airline competition, and this issue
does concern me. US Airways is the dominant carrrier in Pennsylvania,
with hubs in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and United is currently
a major competitor within the state. In fact, the two airlines account
for more than 65 percent of traffic in and out of Philadelphia and more
than 75 percent of traffic in and out of Pittsburgh. While I am pleased
with the potential for increased access for Pennsylvania passengers and
freight shippers to Asia, Central America, the Carribean, and Europe, I
have made Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Wolf aware of my concerns with regard to
competition and pricing. I look forward to reviewing their plans to
address these issues, as well as others raised during this hearing.
However, Mr. Chairman, my major concern surrounding this proposed
merger is the possible adverse effect on the thousands of
Pennsylvanians who are currently employed by US Airways, and the
possibility that these jobs could leave Pennsylvania. For instance,
there are 2,270 maintenance workers at Pittsburgh International
Airport, one of the finest airports in the world. It is my
understanding that United recently invested millions of dollrs in a new
maintenance facility in Indianapolis, which still needs a few thousand
qualified mechanics. I would like to know before this merger is
approved whether they intend to move any of my constituents' jobs or
the extent to which any positions may be eliminated in Pennsylvania.
Further, I have been contacted by many constituents and local
government officials about the impact this merger may have upon the US
Airways training component based in Pittsburgh. This facility employs
more than 500 workers and has an estimated annual economic impact of
$80 million on the local economy. Before this merger is approved, I
would like to know whether the training component and its employees
will remain in Pittsburgh.
Finally, because of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh's status as hubs,
there are thousands of US Airways' flight attendants and pilots who
make Pennsylvania home. Before this merger is approved, I would like to
be assured that Philadelphia and Pittsburgh maintain their hub status
in the new airline.
As you can see, my constituents and I have a major interest in this
proposal. We have many questions that need to be answered before we
sign off on this deal. I again thank the Subcommittee for the
opportunity to testify and look forward to the public debate that lies
ahead.
Senator DeWine. Senator Edwards, thanks for joining us.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN EDWARDS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF NORTH CAROLINA
Senator Edwards. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Senators Kohl
and Specter. Thank you for allowing me to be with you today.
Senator Helms made reference to this a few minutes ago.
Obviously, US Air is a major employer in our State, employing,
I think Senator Helms pointed out, almost 10,000 people in the
State, almost 8,000 people in the Charlotte area alone. So this
merger is actually critically important to the people of our
State. The Charlotte hub is one of the major hubs for US Air. I
think there are 494 daily flights out of Charlotte and 3,400
flights out of Charlotte weekly.
The merger comes at a time when there is increased concern
among people who fly to the Charlotte hub about competition,
price competition, or the lack thereof in the Charlotte
marketplace. I have heard some of the other examples that have
been given today. Let me give just a couple of examples that
apply specifically to Charlotte.
We found a flight, it is on July 4, upcoming July 4,
originating in Washington, DC, going to Charlotte, then going
to New Orleans. If you get on that airplane in Washington, DC,
and fly to New Orleans, the cost of the flight is $220. If you
get on the same airplane in Charlotte, in other words, roughly
halfway through the flight, you pay $982. So if you are on the
flight in Washington, it is $220. If you get on the flight
midway in Charlotte to New Orleans, it is $982.
Senator DeWine. So you are better off going to Washington
first and then starting over.
Senator Edwards. You are a lot better off. It is a lot
cheaper, anyhow. When I talked to the two CEO's of the merging
airlines, first of all, I have to say they were very open and
very candid in all their conversations with me. It was a very
helpful meeting. But I asked the question, how can this happen,
and the answer was, well, probably because there is a
Southwestern flight out of Washington, DC, going to New
Orleans. I think that makes the point. I mean, this whole issue
revolves around the question of competition.
Let me give just one other example, a flight from
Washington, DC, to Miami, stopping in Charlotte. Yesterday, the
fare was $562 if you flew out of Washington. If you do exactly
the same thing, get on the airplane in Charlotte instead of
Washington, DC, the fare is $862, $300 more getting on the
flight midway.
These are two examples. There are lots of examples that we
have, and Mr. Chairman, I will provide copies of those examples
and ask that they be made a part of the record.
Senator DeWine. They will be, without objection, made a
part of the record.
[The information of Senator Edwards was not available at
presstime.]
Senator Edwards. The reality is that in many cases, North
Carolina travelers flying out of the Charlotte hub pay as much
as 4 times as much as travelers who are flying from other US
Airways terminals to identical destinations. This is the direct
result of a lack of price competition in the Charlotte
marketplace, and without some increase in that competition,
these prices are not going to go down.
There is a second concern that we have which this merger
might affect, which are restrictive airport practices. In my
State, the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport has 48 jet
gates and US Airways leases 38 of the 48. In other words, there
are only 10 that they do not lease.
In order for an air carrier to compete in that airport, in
that market, it has to have access to all the airport
facilities--gates, baggage carousels, and ticket counters. The
smaller carriers and the new market entrants have expressed
strong discontent about the particular airport practices that
are being used there, such as exclusive use gate lease
agreements and provisions that require that a majority of the
airlines at an airport approve any new capital expenditure for
which they will be charged. Obviously, these kinds of practices
have a direct effect on restricting a small or new carrier's
ability to compete with established dominant carriers.
In Charlotte, the leases last until the year 2016. Inmany
airports, the leases can last more than 20 years, and these sorts of
deals make it extremely difficult for small airlines to compete with
the larger more established airlines, and many times the gates are only
available at a higher cost or at a disadvantageous time.
So my principal concern with this proposed merger has to do
with price competition and the potential negative impact this
could have on competition in general.
I do want to say a couple of positive things about the
merger because in my meeting with the CEO's of the two
companies, I expressed my concern about employees in North
Carolina and in the Charlotte market, particularly. They have
assured me that they have a contractual responsibility to not
lay off any of those non-managerial employees for a period of 2
years. I think they have made a public commitment that,
essentially, they have no plan to lay anyone off, and I take
them at their word. I believe what they say and that does help
address some of the concerns I have about folks in North
Carolina who are employed by US Air.
The reality is that there is a real potential in North
Carolina for the Charlotte hub to grow as a result of this
merger and as a result of access to destinations we presently
do not have access to, and that can have an enormously positive
economic benefit to not only Charlotte but to all of North
Carolina. So we know that there is real potential here for
spurred economic development in Charlotte and all of the State
of North Carolina.
I think actually the airlines have done another good thing
which I have not heard mentioned today, which is they have
agreed to freeze their three major structural rates for a
period of 2 years, and as I understand it, all the rates
basically flow off those structural rates, and I think that is
a good thing. It is a positive thing. It is something they did
voluntarily and I think it is something they should be
commended for.
But the reality is, we cannot turn a blind eye to the
presently existing lack of price competition in the Charlotte
marketplace, and freezing fares in Charlotte only has the
effect of locking in already existing high prices.
So I hope that this hearing and your committee will explore
the impact of this merger on competition and how the Department
of Justice and FAA review of the merger might help consumers,
which obviously is something we are very concerned about. Mr.
Chairman, I thank you very much.
Senator DeWine. Senator Edwards, thank you very much.
Before I turn to Senator Specter for an opening statement,
do any of my colleagues have any questions for the panel?
[No response.]
Senator DeWine. We appreciate very much your coming. It has
been very, very helpful. And again, the fact that the four of
you took the time to be here really sends a signal, I think, of
the importance of this, not only the hearing, but more
importantly, this proposed merger. So we appreciate it very
much. Thank you.
As our next panel comes up, let me turn to Senator Specter
for any opening statement that he would like to make.
Senator Specter.
STATEMENT OF HON. ARLEN SPECTER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF PENNSYLVANIA
Senator Specter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The proposed
merger between US Airways and United has enormous effect on my
State. There are some 17,000 employees. There have been
enormous investments in both the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
airports and substantial reliance on US Airways. There are very
complex questions as to what impact this merger, if approved,
would have on the national scene. There are the rumbles about
Continental and Northwest getting together and American and
Delta getting together, and I think there is little doubt when
you take the biggest carrier and one of the biggest carriers
and put them together that there is going to be a very profound
impact in the entire industry.
There is enormous concern at the outset on size. We have
been warned about that since the days of Thomas Jefferson and
Justice Brandeis and we have seen the problems which have been
brought about by the Microsoft situation, a lot of commentary
in the publications today about oligopoly. There is a suit
involving a small carrier which tried to go into the market in
Wichita, KS, to compete with American Airlines on routes into
Texas. When they did that, American Airlines lowered their
prices. Predatory practices drove the small competitor out of
business.
I am taking a look in some detail to see what kind of
competition there is or what companies who try to enter the
markets in Pennsylvania. US Air is the sole carrier between
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. There have been a few companies
which have tried to enter the market--East Wind, Pro Air,
Vanguard. East Wind was unsuccessful, but there is always a
risk on size and on predatory practices, which we have seen
really a great deal of in the American economy, and that is
something we have to examine very, very closely.
I am sorry to have arrived at this hearing a little late. I
was part of the U.S. delegation to the funeral services
yesterday of President Assad in Damascus. We arrived back about
1:00 a.m. this morning and then found C-SPAN had these
hearings, so it was a very late night and I heard some of the
comments yesterday. I heard a question raised about United. I
think it was Mr. DeFazio who raised the question about United
having the worst record of service and the worst on-time
record. I did not hear an answer from Mr. Goodwin last night,
but he may have answered it at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., I am not
sure. But if he did not, he will have a chance to today.
I heard the question raised again from Mr. Wolf about what
is going to happen with the maintenance center in Pittsburgh,
and it may be a little parochial, but amaintenance service of
that size with those many jobs involved is something of great concern
to a Pennsylvania Senator. We have been trying to get an answer from US
Airways for a long time, and Senator Santorum and I met with Mr. Wolf
and Mr. Goodwin on May 25 and raised the question again and were told,
understandably at that time, that in 2 days they had not had a chance
to have an answer. It was a closely guarded merger matter. Well, it has
been some time since then and I think Pittsburgh is entitled to an
answer. I do not know if this subcommittee is entitled to an answer,
but I think Pittsburgh is entitled to an answer.
When we have had acquisitions and joinders, we had an
effort by Norfolk Southern to acquire Conrail in 1984, and in
this hearing room, I think, we stopped the acquisition, I think
for the benefit of Pennsylvania, certainly, and the benefit of
America. Then Conrail has been dismantled since between CSX and
Norfolk Southern. I have a lot of problems with what has
happened there.
Some of the recommenders of this matter told us about First
Union, which came into Philadelphia 2 years ago. A week ago
Sunday, the Philadelphia Inquirer had a story about how First
Union gave the worst consumer service in the country, quite a
remarkable record, for the entire country.
So these are matters which are very, very much on my mind
and I intend to have hearings in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
and Allentown. This is a big, big matter for Pennsylvania and I
think it is a big, big matter for America, so I thank you for
the chance to make this statement, Mr. Chairman.
Senator DeWine. Thank you, Senator Specter.
Senator Specter. We are seeking a quorum on Governmental
Affairs. This is an operation, this building, where roller
skates are not sufficient. You have to have elevated capacity,
as well. But I will return.
Senator DeWine. Senator Specter, thank you very much.
Let me invite our second panel to come up. We appreciate
all of you being here and I will begin to introduce you as you
come up.
James Goodwin is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
UAL Corporation and United Airlines. He was previously
President and Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for
all operational groups.
Stephen Wolf is the Chairman of US Airways Group.
Previously, Mr. Wolf served from 1987 through July 1994 as
Chairman and CEO of United Airlines.
Robert L. Johnson is the Chairman and CEO of DC Air. Mr.
Johnson is also the Chairman and CEO of BET Holdings. He also
served on the US Airways board and is a member of the Board of
Governors for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH.
I had to get that in there, Mr. Johnson.
David Neeleman is Chief Executive Officer of JetBlue
Airways Corporation. He was President and co-founder of Morris
Air, which was acquired by Southwest Airlines in December 1993.
Professor Alfred Kahn is an Emeritus Professor of Political
Economy at Cornell University and a special consultant to
National Economic Research Associates. He is also the former
Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board. He testified before
this committee a short time ago. We welcome him back.
Mark Cooper is Director of Research at the Consumer
Federation of America and President of Citizens Research. At
the Consumer Federation, Mr. Cooper has responsibility for
energy and telecommunications policy and analysis as well as
internal consulting duties for survey research and economic
analysis.
We welcome all of you. We apologize for the delay, but that
is the nature of the Senate. We are here now ready for your
testimony, which we appreciate very much.
I am going to go out of order and I am going to start with
Professor Kahn, and the reason I am going to do that is that he
is due in Congressman Henry Hyde's Judiciary Committee in the
U.S. House of Representatives any moment, and we do not want to
lose his testimony. We are going to ask him to go first and
then we will go back to the regular order, which will be
starting with Mr. Goodwin.
Professor Kahn, thank you very much, and we hope you can
stay for questions, but if you have to go, we will understand.
Thank you for coming.
PANEL CONSISTING OF ALFRED KAHN, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF
POLITICAL ECONOMY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NY; JAMES E.
GOODWIN, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, UNITED AIRLINES,
CHICAGO, IL; STEPHEN M. WOLF, CHAIRMAN, US AIRWAYS GROUP, INC.,
ARLINGTON, VA; ROBERT L. JOHNSON, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, DC AIR, WASHINGTON, DC; DAVID NEELEMAN, CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, JETBLUE AIRWAYS CORPORATION, NEW YORK, NY;
AND MARK N. COOPER, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, CONSUMER FEDERATION
OF AMERICA, WASHINGTON, DC
STATEMENT OF ALFRED KAHN
Mr. Kahn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am honored by your
second invitation and grateful that it gives me an opportunity
to repay you a debt. I ran over my allotted time last time by
several minutes. I will try to give you some of that back
today.
As you know, last time, I testified about the question of
whether the industry was prone to engaging in predatory or
unfairly exclusionary practices and we talked a little about
the DOT rules. I think those are terribly important. We are now
talking about----
Senator DeWine. Professor, could you pull the microphone
just a little closer?
Mr. Kahn. I am sorry.
Senator DeWine. We want to hear and we also want everyone
in the room to be able to hear, as well.
Mr. Kahn. The subject last time was behavioral rules for
the industry and I think antitrust has these two essential
aspects, one, control over illegitimate behavior, and second,
being alert to changes in the structure of an industry that may
threaten competition. So I will turn with only a few brief
remarks to the proposed merger.
Let me point out right away that I do not have a settled
opinion about the merits of the merger. I am going to suggest
three areas of inquiry, however, that I am sure the Department
of Justice will want to undertake, some of which you have
already identified.
The first is, of course, the possibility that there is
direct competition on important routes between the two
carriers. The Department of Justice has brought suit against
the proposed acquisition of Continental by Northwest Airlines
and there it identified some eight major routes, notably
between their respective hubs, on which they were either the
only two competitors or preponderant competitors. So I do not
know to what extent there are such direct competitive overlaps,
but that is obviously the first place that the Department of
Justice should look.
The second is one that I have not heard much alluded to but
I think is terribly important. In deregulating the airlines, we
relied very heavily on the threat of potential as well as
actual competition to prevent exploitation of consumers. It was
the asserted contestability of airline markets that we thought
was very important, and it seems to me that it is highly likely
that there are many routes on which either United or US Airways
is a potential competitor of the other.
There were several studies in the 1980's of the pricing
behavior of the newly deregulated airline industry, and while,
to my recollection, those studies demonstrated that one
competitor actually in a market is worth at least two
contestors in the bush, it also demonstrated that the presence
of a potential entrant already operating at one or the other
end of a route did have a disciplinary effect on prices on that
route. So I think that second topic is one that we really want
the Department of Justice to talk about.
I have a bit of history here that is relevant. I went back
and looked at the notes that I took back in the 1980's when
Northwest was proposing to merge with Republic Airlines and it
turned out that there were very few routes on which they were
direct competitors. There was just a handful. And yet Republic
was a successful airline. It had a hub at Memphis, which it
acquired from Southern, Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul, and I
find it difficult to believe--we cannot be sure that it would
have survived, but I find it difficult to believe that we would
not have been better off if those two airlines had not gotten
together, giving Northwest its 80, 90 percent domination of
those hubs.
It is that potential competition which I think is
particularly worth looking at in this case because I take it
that United's main explanation and justification of the merger,
at least the one that has been commented on in the press, is
that United needs a strong hub in the Northeast. The press has
over the years been pointing that out with respect to both
United and American Airlines.
But if United really does feel the need for a big hub in
the Northeast, this suggests that it is an important potential
competitor of US Air and that if denied the ability to acquire
the hub in the easiest non-competitive fashion by acquiring US
Air's Pittsburgh and Charlotte hubs, it might be impelled to
construct a hub of its own in direct competition with US Air.
Now, potential competition, in theory, is supposed to be
taken into account in the antitrust laws. It has tended to be
slighted in many of the merger cases that I am familiar with in
recent years, but in the airline industry, potential
competition is terribly important.
Finally, the point that several other people have
emphasized. If United's acquisition of a competitive advantage,
by giving it the first claim on traffic feed from US Air's
extensive network. If that increases the pressure on other
carriers to do likewise, then we do have to take into account
in assessing the effects of this merger the possible repetitive
effect that it may have.
I happen to have had some involvement in American's
reaction when United signed a code-sharing agreement and an
alliance with Lufthansa. American first tried to prevent it.
Failing that, it seems very clear to me, American's move then
to acquire a similar partner in the case of British Air was an
illustration of this possible cumulative effect of the merger.
So it is these three levels that I am very eager to hear
the Department of Justice's analysis. Thank you.
Senator DeWine. Professor, thank you very much.
Mr. Goodwin.
STATEMENT OF JAMES E. GOODWIN
Mr. Goodwin. Good morning, Chairman DeWine, Ranking Member
Kohl, and other members of this distinguished subcommittee. On
behalf of United Airlines' more than 100,000 employees, I would
like to thank you for this opportunity to testify this morning.
My name is Jim Goodwin. I am Chairman and CEO of United
Airlines. Before I took my current position, I was President
and Chief Operating Officer. At various times, I have managed
North American operations, international operations,
maintenance, and marketing. I began my career at United
Airlines 33 years ago last week.
In short, I am an airline guy. I have spent my life
learning this business piece by piece, and in the course of
that, I have learned what our customers want. They want to be
able to go anywhere and go there conveniently. They want global
access and they want global service, and that is what an
airline must deliver.
I am excited about this merger because I believe it will
deliver on that promise. This subcommittee will review the
antitrust implications of this merger. In my view, this merger
is strongly pro-competitive. The United/US Airways merger will
create the Nation's first comprehensive airline network and the
network economics that result from creating such a network will
mean substantial benefits for our customers and competition in
general.
For example, the network synergies will make it possible to
add cross-country and international nonstop routes that neither
United nor US Airways could have justified without the merger.
United plans to add 93 nonstop domestic and international
flights the day this merger is consummated. More than half of
those nonstop flights are on routes where no airline provides
nonstop service today. This added service means greater
customer choice and added competition.
In addition, the network synergies will result in United
providing new competition on 560 city-to-city routes where
neither United nor US Airways competes today. The merger will
make it possible for United Airlines to challenge Delta and
American in the Southeast and along the Southern tier cross-
country routes, areas of American and Delta strength. The
merger will also make air travel more convenient for consumers
by greatly expanding single carrier hassle-free service on
thousands of routes. We will literally bring the world to
gateways across America.
And with that worldwide system comes a world class set of
services--single check-in, seamless bookings, the industry's
best airport lounges, a frequent flyer program that offers more
options for travel to more places throughout the world. All of
these aspects of having a comprehensive airline network will
generate significant consumer benefits.
The basic point in this, in my years in the airline
industry, I have looked at every single possible combination
for United and I am here today because this combination is the
only one that will deliver what our customers need. United
Airlines is committed totally, with no equivocation and with a
substantial amount of cash, to this merger. That is the kind of
big step that requires a very special opportunity.
United is also committed to addressing any possible issues
about the overlap of routes. That is why we took the
unprecedented step of proposing a remedy on the day we
announced the merger. I am talking about the creation of DC
Air, an independent new carrier at Reagan National that will
bring significant new competitive service to the Washington
area.
As you know, Congress, the Department of Justice, and the
regulators will review this proposal carefully. We welcome that
scrutiny and we are confident that they, like us, will conclude
that this merger will benefit all air travelers.
This merger is about expanding customer choice. It is about
creating growth and economic benefits for communities across
America. It is about delivering more convenience and more
travel options to the passengers and shippers alike. Growth
happens when cities in the West, like Denver, have better
service to the East. It happens when cities in the Northeast,
like Albany, have new options to travel in the United States
and abroad. It happens when Charlotte is given a chance to
continue its growth as a hub and become a more competitive
counterbalance to Atlanta in the Southeast.
Worldwide access, convenient service, community growth,
that is what this combination will deliver and that is what I
look forward to talking with each of you about this morning.
Thank you.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Goodwin, thank you very much for your
testimony.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Goodwin follows:]
Prepared Statement of James E. Goodwin
Chairman DeWine, Ranking Member Kohl, and other Members of this
distinguished Subcommittee, on behalf of United Airlines' more than
100,000 employees worldwide, thank you for the opportunity to testify
today. United appreciates the chance to explain why our customer-driven
merger with US Airways is pro-competitive under the antitrust laws and
how this transaction will significantly benefit consumers and the
communities served by both carriers.
As I will explain in more detail below, United believes the merger
is a ``win-win'' for valued customers of both carriers, other airlines
travelers, and competition generally. The merger's network synergies
will lead to consumer benefits and increased competition. United plans
to provide nonstop service in many markets in which no nonstop service
exists today and will add new competition to routes in which neither
United nor US Airways competes today. Among other things, United will
add new competition in the Southeast and along southern cross-country
routes, taking on Delta's and American's strong presence in those
areas. In addition, the merger's synergies will allow United to offer
more extensive connecting service to customers in our hub cities and
the smaller airports connected to our hubs. Finally, passengers that
prefer flying on United or US Airways will now enjoy access to a more
extensive, global on-line network, allowing them to earn and use
frequent flyer miles on one network, which will result in significant
consumer benefits.
The acquisition not only will generate these significant consumer
and competitive benefits, but has been structured to address any
potential antitrust issues raised by the combination. United and US
Airways propose to divest sufficient assets to create a new airline, DC
Air, the would address antitrust concerns arising from combining the
two airline networks in Washington D.C. The creation of DC Air will
alleviate any potential anticompetitive concerns with the transaction
related to Washington, D.C., and customers will benefit both from the
synergies resulting directly from the transaction and from the
additional competition provided by DC Air.
Mr. Chairman, we are a customer service business that operates in a
highly competitive global industry. Simply put, our success depends on
our ability to anticipate and respond fully to our customers. Our
customers tell us they want hassle free, single-carrier service
throughout the country. Similarly, international passengers tell us
that they want seamless, global network service such as that offered by
the Star Alliance, the premier alliance with which United is proud to
be affiliated. Listening to the marketplace, the message was
unmistakable: our customers except us to offer them the benefits of the
most comprehensive air service network possible.
Put in that context, let me explain our decision to acquire US
Airways. Like a chain, an airline's network is only as strong as its
weakest link. As United examined its ability to respond fully to our
valued customers, we considered whether we could improve our efficiency
and the sustained level of service provide. What we discovered was that
United's weakest link was US Airways' strongest link and vice-a-versa.
United has an extensive east-west system in the United States with hubs
in the Midwest and the West. In contrast, US Airways has a
comprehensive north-south route system along the East Coast anchored by
hubs in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Charlotte. Together, the two
networks are highly complementary.
Accordingly, United concluded that by combining the two carriers,
we would draw upon the strengths of both airlines and simultaneously
fill service voids in each other's existing networks. The result, we
believe, will be the first truly efficient nationwide network that will
provide consumers with unparalleled travel convenience and service.
Let me now walk through in more detail why the transaction will
produce substantial pro-competitive benefits. The merger's pro-
competitive synergies reflect the nature of the airlines business. Most
airline networks are structured as hub-and-spoke networks to route
passenger traffic efficiently. These networks exhibit certain network
economies, such that the more extensive the hub-and-spoke network, the
lower the cost of providing service on each city-pair segment and the
greater the ability to provide improved quality of service throughout
the airline's route structure. By combining the complementaryUS Airways
and United networks, the proposed transaction would allow the combined
entity to enjoy greater network economies. The merger would therefore
facilitate adding frequencies and new routes, and improve overall
quality of service.
Because of such network synergies, United will be able to add
nonstop service on many cross-country and international routes on which
neither United nor US Airways would have found it economic to do so
without the merger. As a beginning, based on today's market
environment, United plans to add 93 non-stop flights in 47 routes
shortly after the merger is consummated. Of these, 64 are domestic
flights and 29 will be international flights. On domestic routes, for
example, consumers will benefit from planned new non-stop flights
between Pittsburgh and San Jose; Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon;
Washington Dulles and Orange County; Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco;
Austin and Charlotte; Denver and Ft. Lauderdale; and San Francisco and
Tampa Bay. United also plans to introduce daily non-stop service to
other international destinations as well. For example, from Dulles, our
plan is to offer the only daily non-stop flight from Washington to
Copenhagen and, subject to government approval, the only daylight
service to London Heathrow. In Boston, United plans an additional daily
flight to Frankfurt and the only daily non-stop service to Tokyo.
These new nonstop flights will add competition along these city-
pair routes. It is important to note that slightly more than half of
these 93 flights will be on routes where no airline provides non-stop
service today. Beyond a doubt, the merger will enhance consumer choice
and add competition on these routes.
This increase in service and the overall greater connectivity
created by the merger also will enhance competition along hundreds of
other city pair routes. After the merger, United will have a
significant competitive presence on 560 city-to-city routes where
neither United nor US Airways competes today. Examples of one-stop
routes where United will provide new competition include Sacramento to
Erie, Pa.; Reno, Nev., to Tallahassee, Fla.; Ft. Lauderdale to San
Antonio; and Fargo, N.D., to Panama City, Fla. The 560 new routes also
include a number of international flights as well, including new one-
stop flights from Phoenix to Copenhagen; San Jose, Calif., to Madrid;
Birmingham, Ala. to Brussels; and Tulsa, Okla., to London. Adding
service on these routes results in an unambiguous increase in consumer
choice and competition.
The merger will not only increase competition on a route-by-route
level, but also from a broader perspective. Today, United has minimal
presence on north-south routes along the East Coast, in the
southeastern part of the country, and on transcontinental routes across
the southern tier of the United states. US Airways, while it has a
strong presence along north-south East Coast routes, does not have the
network to adequately serve the southeastern part of the country nor
compete strongly along southern transcontinental routes. By contrast,
these areas are the strengths of Delta and American Airlines, the
second and third largest airline carriers. Delta, with its hub in
Atlanta, is the largest airline in the Southeast, and it has a strong
presence from this southeastern base along north-south East Coast
routes and southern transcontinental routes. Similarly, American
Airlines, with its hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami, has a strong
presence in the southeastern part of the country along with southern
transcontinental routes. American, with its focus, also has a strong
presence in routes from the United States to South America.
The merger will allow United to challenge Delta's and American's
strong presence in these markets. With the newly acquired hub in
Charlotte, United will have sufficient presence on both sides of the
country to begin flying transcontinental routes across the southern
tier of the country, directly challenging American and Delta along
these routes. Moreover, this transcontinental presence will allow
United to focus the Charlotte operations on challenging Delta in the
southeastern part of the country, as the availability of cross-country
routes will make it more economical for United to expand service from
Charlotte in the Southeast. Finally, with the expanded presence in the
southeastern part of the country and southern cross-country routes,
United can better use Miami as a getaway into South America, where it
competes with American's service in these markets.
The combination of United and US Airways also will create an
airline for the 21st Century that will deliver significant benefits to
millions of passengers. Over the years, customers feedback and research
have made one fact abundantly clear: Many business and leisure
travelers like to travel on a preferred airline, enjoying access to
airport facilities andamenities provided to preferred customers, and to
take advantage of corporate discounts with the preferred airline. These
travelers desire on-line access to as many flights, city-pairs, and
airports as possible on their airline. The merger, by combining the
cities and airports served by the two carriers (and the Star Alliance)
into a global network, will provide such passengers with on-line access
to the combined network of the two carriers. The result will be
significant new benefits to millions of consumers.
The numbers tell the story. For United passengers, the merger will
create new, single-carrier service to 93 destinations and add about
5,000 routes to the network. For US Airways passengers, the benefit is
even greater: new, single-carrier service to 145 destinations and an
additional 7,000 routes. Overall, United will offer over 80,000 non-
stop, one-stop, and two-stop flights daily, more than double what
United or US Airways offers today separately.
In short, this transaction brings together two complementary route
systems that will result in a new network connecting US Airways'
eastern U.S. routes with United's western U.S. routes and our
international network. The result for consumers will be a more
extensive network in which consumers can enjoy the considerable
benefits that travel on United offers, benefits that will help simplify
travel and make it as hassle-free as possible. Those benefits range
from the convenience of single-carrier service and one baggage check-in
to United's #1-rated Internet site, the best airport lounges in the
industry, and a frequent flyer program, Mileage Plus, that delivers
more opportunities to earn miles and many more destinations for award
travel throughout the world. Added to that is the reach of our Star
Alliance partners, which will link passengers to a comprehensive
network that will directly carry them to destinations around the globe
in a way not currently possible.
Let me share a case in point. We have an extensive network in Asia
while US Airways does not serve that region of the world. The merger
will fill that service gap for US Airways passengers. As result of the
merger, a current US Airways passenger in Pittsburgh will enjoy new
single-carrier, one-stop service to Asia/Pacific destinations such as
Shanghai, Beijing, Osaka, Taipei, Seoul and Sydney. The same is true
for new single-carrier, one-stop service from Pittsburgh to Latin
American destinations such as Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo,
Santiago and Buenos Aires. These are a just few examples of how the
merger will make global travel more convenient in the eastern United
States.
Mr. Chairman, that is a summary of the pro-competitive benefits of
the transaction and we think they are substantial. Now, let me turn to
the issue of the extent of overlap between the networks and what we are
doing to address the potential antitrust concerns. At the outset, it is
worth noting that unlike previous airline mergers dating back to the
1980s, United and US Airways do not share a common hub. So, our merger
does not present that concern. We believe also that overall there are
few overlaps that raise significant antitrust concerns. To cite one
statistic, within the East Coast, while US Airways carries about 38
percent of passengers, United only has about 1.7 percent of passengers.
What that tells you is that in US Airways' strength, the north-south
network along the East Coast, United is not a significant player there
today and therefore the merger does not present significant overlaps.
Nonetheless, we have taken great care to proactively identify and
remedy what we thought might be potential issues for regulators. We
recognized from the outset that antitrust concerns might be raised with
respect to Washington, D.C., United has a hub at Washington Dulles and
US Airways is the #1 carrier in terms of enplanements at Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport. To address any possible issue about the
overlap on Washington, D.C., routes as a result of the transaction, we
are voluntarily divesting the bulk of US Airways' significant and
valuable resources at Reagan National. We will divest these assets to
DC Air, an independent new-entrant carrier that will bring significant
new competitive service to the nation's capital.
We believe there is little doubt that DC Air will provide a viable,
profitable, and strong competitive presence in Washington, D.C. and
other markets it serves. Reagan National generates a significant amount
of local traffic and DC Air will have access to valuable slots to serve
this market.
Now, I understand that many have criticized the fact that DC Air
will have arm's length, market-based contractual relationships with
United to provide fuel, planes, and other assets for a transition
period. Somehow, these transitional relationships are supposedto
suggest that DC Air is not viable. These critics must not work in the
airline industry, as these types of leasing and contractual
relationships are common in the industry.
DC Air will add a new competitive presence in Washington, D.C.
After the merger and the DC Air divestiture, United's Dulles hub will
compete with DC Air's base of operations at Reagan National. Both
airlines will also compete with the other airlines serving the
Washington, D.C., area. DC Air has indicated it plans to offer service
from Reagan National to 43 cities. That total includes 31 cities in
which US Airways' service from Reagan National competes today with
United's service from Reagan National or Dulles. At a minimum,
therefore, competition from Reagan National will be maintained, given
DC Air's low-cost structure, United expects that competition will be
enhanced. Moreover, in the case of routes between Reagan National and
three cities--Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Charlotte--United will enter
those routes and compete with DC Air in providing service to Reagan
National. Today, only US Airways provides any service to Charlotte from
a Washington airport and only US Airways provides service to Reagan
National from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Again, we see that as an
increase in competition.
United will acquire and operate the US Airways shuttle between
Washington, New York and Boston. United today does not provide a
shuttle service from Washington Reagan National. On these routes, US
Airways competes with Delta. I can assure you that we will compete
vigorously with Delta on those popular routes. On a broader city pair
basis, six airlines (United, US Airways, Delta, Continental, TWA, and
American) provide service between New York City and Washington D.C. and
entry is a viable option given the high percentage of local traffic on
these routes. We see no diminution in competition in these markets
because of the merger.
In short, we believe the DC Air divestiture addresses any antitrust
concerns related to Washington, D.C. And, we believe addressing the
Washington, D.C., overlap addresses the most significant overlap caused
by the merger.
Of course, we understand that regulators and other interested
parties will scrutinize other possible overlaps between the airlines.
We do not believe any other overlaps raise significant competitive
concerns. For example, we understand that the Justice Department will
look closely at routes between the two airlines' hubs in which United
and US Airways are the only airlines providing nonstop service today.
While there are four such routes in which United could be the only
airline providing nonstop service after the merger, United will still
face significant competition on these routes. Most of these routes are
cross-country routes in which other airlines provide direct and
connecting service; these other airlines already have significant
shares of traffic in these markets. Most of these routes also have
logical potential entrants located at one of the hubs. For business
travelers that travel almost exclusively on a preferred carrier, we
will offer more frequencies per day on these routes on a single
carrier, greatly increasing their travel flexibility. And, finally,
passengers flying out of hub cities will enjoy significant benefits
overall because of the added service and greater overall on-line
connectivity available because of the merger.
Finally, let me address the issue of consolidation in the industry.
Recently, there have been a number of press reports discussing possible
consolidation in the airline industry in Europe and elsewhere. Airlines
are not seeking to get bigger solely for the sake of size alone. That
is not the case at all. As with this transaction, airlines are being
forced by the marketplace to build the strongest and most comprehensive
route structure possible. In doing so, airlines are able to respond
better to customer demand for seamless, hassle free travel. Also,
building the strongest possible network enables carriers to maximize
their operating efficiencies. It also can lead to increased
competition, as airlines are better able to take on other airlines in
the other carrier's area of strengths.
Some have nonetheless said that we should not enjoy all the pro-
competitive benefits from the United-US Airways merger because of the
possibility that other airlines might merge in the future. I cannot
speculate on what other combinations might arise. But I can say that
our merger agreement should be viewed on its merits. No matter what
other mergers might occur, these facts will remain the same: (1) A
United-US Airways merger is a merger of complementary networks; (2) A
United-US Airways merger presents few overlaps of competitive
significance; (3) A United-US Airways merger includes the creation of a
new airline (DC Air); and (4) A United-US Airways merger will generate
numerous pro-consumer benefits. Any other possible combination will
have to make a similar pro-competitive demonstration under the
antitrust laws. None of us knows whether such future mergers will
occur, whether the merging airlines will have the pro-competitive
benefits of the United-US Airways merger, and whether the merging
airlines will take the steps we have to ensure that the transaction
will be pro-competitive. I would also note that the speculation I have
seen ignores the existence and growth of Southwest Airlines, along with
a growing number of low-cost discount or regional carriers such as ATA,
Frontier, and Jet Blue.
Mr. Chairman, let me conclude by again thanking you for the
opportunity to testify today. As I have said, we strongly believe this
transaction should be approved. It is in best interest of consumers,
communities served by both carriers and the U.S. economy. I would be
pleased to respond to any questions.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Wolf.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN M. WOLF
Mr. Wolf. Chairman DeWine, Senator Kohl, and members of the
committee, on behalf of the entire US Airways family, I
appreciate the opportunity to be here with you this morning.
With over 30 years in aviation, I have been fortunate to
have been associated with the development of both US Airways
and United Airlines. From this perhaps unique perspective, I
would like to offer a few comments on the proposed merger.
The merger of United and US Airways creates, in the words
of one major financial analyst, the first airline of the 21st
century. Indeed, this event will be a milestone in commercial
aviation, joining the complimentary systems and assets of two
veteran and geographically different carriers to create the
Nation's and the world's most efficient route network. For US
Airways, this merger will enable us to provide the
comprehensive global service that our valued customers and
communities we serve demand and, indeed, deserve.
When I joined what was then US Air a little over 4 years
ago, I pondered whether or not there was a place in U.S.
commercial aviation for a mid-sized carrier with mature costs
that was at that time coming off of multiple years of multi-
billion-dollar losses, a thoroughly weakened balance sheet, a
frequently talked about bankruptcy candidate, a aging mixed
fleet of aircraft, subpar service levels, and no strategic
direction. While these characteristics were indeed significant,
I believed they were manageable.
The question I then pondered was where could US Airways
realistically hope to go long-term, recognizing it was the only
United States mid-sized mature cost carrier left out of the
original group of six. Braniff, Eastern, and Pan American were
gone, and Continental and TWA had gone through bankruptcy twice
each, and in the process dramatically adjusted their cost
structure.
Well, the answer to that question was not clear. We
nevertheless committed ourselves to establishing US Airways as
a vibrant, financially secure, global carrier. To this end, the
dedicated and hard-working employees of US Airways have made
enormous progress. To take the next critical step, however, in
becoming a truly global carrier requires access to
transcontinental and international markets. With this union, US
Airways has the opportunity to achieve this goal in a single
stroke. In brief, this is the right step with the right partner
at the right time.
Importantly, this is not a merger whose benefits are
measured in the elimination of duplicate jobs and functions.
This is a merger whose benefits truly flow from improved
service, vigorous new competition in domestic and international
markets, and the seamless web of efficient global travel that
will occur. This new partnership will employ more people,
stimulate economic development, and facilitate international
commerce, trade, tourism, and investment for more U.S.
communities. These benefits are equally important for the
multitude of US Airways network cities service through
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Charlotte, which will have the
immediate access to the global reach of United's system and the
Star Alliance.
An exciting and pro-competitive part of this merger
proposal is the creation of a highly competitive new entrant
carrier at Washington's Reagan National Airport, with more than
100 flights daily to 43 destinations. It also will bring about
the most significant pro-competitive change in the regional
market since slots were initiated at Washington National in
1968.
Over the past 3 decades, my career has taken me from
American Airlines to Pan American World Airways to Continental,
Republic, Flying Tigers, United, and finally US Airways. My
enthusiasm for this proposal is rooted in a lifetime of
experience in this industry. This agreement will extend the
promise of domestic deregulation by enabling more American air
travelers to more fully enjoy a global network of seamless
service and benefits of open competition.
Mr. Chairman, I want to share with you just a second the
deliberations of our board of directors, who pondered this
thing very significantly. From the perspective of our three
constituencies, shareholders, employees, and customers and
communities we serve, this is certainly fair to our
shareholders. It is an absolute home run for our employees in
terms of a guaranteed job and career advancement opportunities
we could not provide. And for the communities and customers we
serve, it provides them access to the best route system in the
entire world and all the economic pluses that come with that,
which are significant.
In my judgment, this union provides the ideal free market
response to the rising customer demand for international
travel. The enhanced United Airlines will be well positioned to
extend the benefits of deregulation to the global marketplace
in the second century of flight. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and
members.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Wolf, thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wolf follows:]
Prepared Statement of Stephen M. Wolf
Chairman DeWine, Ranking Member Kohl, and Members of the Committee,
on behalf of the entire US Airways family, I appreciate the opportunity
to be here this afternoon.
The merger of United and US Airways creates, in the words of one
major financial analyst, the first airline of the 21st Century. Indeed,
this event will be a milestone in commercial aviation, joining the
complementary systems and assets of two veteran and successful carriers
to create the nation's and world's most efficient and comprehensive
route network, much to the benefit of the customers and communities we
serve.
I am fortunate to have been involved with this industry for over 30
years and associated with the development of both US Airways and United
Airlines. From this perhaps unique perspective, I would like to offer a
few comments on the proposed merger.
Put simply, both organizations can take great pride in this
remarkable step--and both can be excited by what it means to the
traveling public and the communities we serve. The analyst is correct:
this IS the first airline of the 21st Century.
Just as the great airlines that emerged from he onset of
deregulation--the Uniteds and Americans and Deltas and Northwests,
indeed, in US Airways--have brought the benefits of affordable air
travel to millions and millions of Americans, so will those benefits be
expanded even further in the 21st Century evolution of this system. And
just as the first era of deregulation spawned new and powerful forces
such as Southwest Airlines, so too can we expect to see a new
competitive spirit emerge in the coming decades as new opportunities
arise.
For US Airways, this merger promises to help us provide the
efficient, global service that our valued customers demand and deserve.
I joined what was then US Air a little over four years ago. At that
time, I pondered whether or not there was a place in U.S. commercial
aviation for a mid-sized, mature-cost carrier, recognizing that we were
unique in our position. The industry was made up of many successful,
incumbent carriers--American, Delta, Northwest and United. The balance
of the mid-sized, mature-cost carriers had disappeared, those being
Braniff, Eastern, and Pan American. Then, there were an array of low-
cost carriers, such as Southwest, which operated with a significantly
lower cost structure and a product that focused on point-to-point
service. Finally, there were the in-between carriers that were
generally size-peers of ours, including TWA and Continental. But these
carriers had substantially reduced their cost structure as a result of
a series of bankruptcy filings. US Air was none of the above.
In this difficult business environment, we committed to a five-
point strategic plan to restore financial stability to our company that
would ultimately lead to our company that would ultimately lead to our
becoming the ``Carrier of Choice.'' Together, with the dedicated and
hard-working employees of US Airways, we have made enormous strides in
transforming the airline and have been successful in attaining our
goals. We have made spectacular improvements in our operational
performance, established harmonious labor agreements, begun fleet
modernization and expanded our international service. What goal
remains? We are determined to become a world-class, global carrier,
that provides our customers with efficient, worldwide service.
To take the next critical step in this five-point strategy requires
access to transcontinental and international markets. But we are a mid-
sized, high-cost player in an industry characterized by extremely
vigorous competition. With deregulation and the subsequent emergence of
small, low-cost regional airlines as well as the growth of global
alliances, it has become increasingly challenging for us to maintain
our competitive edge and remain profitable. In this environment, we can
only go so far if we go it alone. To expand into the global market and
to realize our full potential, we have to join with a partner that has
a more extensive scope, breadth and reach. With a route network that
primarily complements ours, United Airlines is that ideal partner.
With this union, US Airways has the opportunity to achieve our goal
of building a truly global carrier--not over many years, but in a
single stroke. Without it, we would face tremendous hurdles in striving
to offer the kind of convenience and world wide service that our
customers both deserve and expect in this competitive era. For the US
Airways family--our employees, our customers and the communities we
serve--we are obligated to do the right thing. And this is it: the
right step, with the right partner at the right time.
What makes this so right? First, the combination is a superb fit
that enhances competition and benefits customers. This is an agreement
that works on many levels and is one in which the consumer benefits of
the combined carriers will be substantially greater than their
individual parts. Where there was the potential for overlap between the
two carriers--primarily in the Washington area--we have eliminated that
potential conflict by divestiture. In contrast to many mergers whose
benefits are often measured in the ``synergies'' of eliminating
duplicative jobs and functions, this is a merger whose benefits truly
flow from the growth that will occur.
United's extensive east-west system and western presence nicely
complement US Airways' comprehensive north-south routes and eastern
presence. Historically, both US Airways and United are known for their
high level of service and for the professionalism of their employees.
Our employee unions are similar. And we each have, in large part, the
same type of aircraft--all major considerations.
For the thousands of dedicated and loyal men and women in our
workforce, this agreement promises a bright future. For nearly a
decade, the employees of US Airways have faced periods of uncertainty
about the future of the company. Now they will be part of the most
exciting development in commercial aviation history, and they will see
their career opportunities, and their security, increase. United
Airlines agreed that, given the complementary networks and benefits of
the combined carrier, they could absorb these employees without the
need for layoffsand furloughs. Indeed, given the strong projections in
leisure and business travel, the new partnership actually expects to
employ more people rather than fewer in the foreseeable future.
For millions of our customers, this merger will deliver immediate
benefits, while simultaneously building a foundation for future
opportunities. This step is both pro-consumer and pro-competitive.
In today's global economy, more people are flying to more places
than ever before; and this merger is a natural step to meet that
demand. Partnered with United, we will be able to provide our customers
with an unparalleled array of on-line destinations. Our passengers will
gain new non-stop, same-carrier service to 117 U.S. cities and 28
international destinations. Our loyal and frequent customers, many of
whom live in small and medium-size cities throughout the eastern United
States, will gain instant access to over 500 additional destinations in
every corner of the globe through the Star Alliance.
This means that millions of our customers will be linked to a
system that will directly carry them to commercial centers around the
globe. On the combined US Airways and United system, for instance,
travelers will be able to fly from such places as Frankfort, Kentucky
to Frankfurt, Germany, and from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Silicon
Valley with never-before-available ease and convenience. After the
merger, more passengers will enjoy the convenience of one airline, one
baggage check-in and one frequent flyer program.
For the US Airways family of communities, this agreement will bring
home significant benefits. We will bring the world to the doorsteps of
hundreds of communities by providing easier access to international
destinations. Many of the mid-size cities we serve--such as Charleston,
Rochester, and Tampa--will gain seamless access to international
destinations. Our hub in Charlotte, for example, will gain new non-stop
service to several West Coast destinations, and one-stop service to new
destinations such as Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Taiwan,
as well as to Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and
Santiago. In addition, dozens of communities in the eastern United
States will have enhanced commercial and tourism opportunities with
new, convenient access to numerous Asian destinations.
By gaining convenient access to international destinations, these
communities will see traffic multiply and business opportunities
flourish. They will strengthen their ability to attract international
investments, as well as domestic business and tourism. And US Airways'
hub cities in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Charlotte will be better
able to compete with other carriers' East Coast hubs and international
gateways.
This combination will also give rise to a new level of
competitiveness--in an industry where competition is already thriving.
The number of airlines in this country is on the increase, not the
decrease. This is true both in domestic and international markets. In
the Eastern United States alone, regional and low-cost carriers like
Southwest, Delta Express, AirTran and JetBlue have transformed the
landscape and significantly expanded consumer choice. All signs
indicate that this trend is likely to continue; the merger of US
Airways and United will not interrupt it, but will augment it. We will
spark growth industry-wide, starting with the creation of new
competitive avenues and service options.
And as an important part of this transaction, certain current US
Airways assets will be transferred to a new airline--DC Air--that will
inject fresh competition into the Washington, DC marketplace. DC Air
will be a Washington-based airline committed to offering high-quality,
cost-competitive service to consumers and business in this region. It
will be a major competitive force at Washington's Reagan National
Airport, with more than 100 flights daily to 43 destinations. It also
will be the nation's largest minority-owned airline and will bring
about the most significant pro-competitive change since slot controls
were initiated at Washington National in 1968.
I have spoken today primarily in my capacity as Chairman of US
Airways, and it is natural that my testimony be viewed as
representative of the interests of my company. And indeed. I speak
first and foremost for the airline that I have helped to lead for the
past four years.But I am also here today to address the future of an
even larger community--the commercial aviation industry.
I have spent a professional lifetime in this industry. Over the
past three decades, my career has taken me from American Airlines to
Pan American World Airways to Continental, Republic, Flying Tigers,
United and finally US Airways and I bring all of my aviation experience
to bear on my testimony here today.
For these thirty years, I have watched the era of deregulation, the
expansion of regional service and the impact of globalization create a
revolution in the airline industry. The combination of these two
carriers is both the most positive response to these new market forces
and a proactive step into the next generation of flight.
But the impact of this merger transcends the immediate; it is a
major milestone in aviation history. By helping to generate new
competition, it will establish a new era in the industry. It will
further and enhance America's leadership in the global aviation market.
As we move into the second century of flight, the international
marketplace is undergoing a radical transformation. The world has never
been more interconnected than it is today. The combination of
technology and free-market principles has led to the free-flow of
goods, services and information across national borders. Travelers from
all four corners of the country need to be able to travel throughout
the country and throughout the world quickly and efficiently. By
combining the strengths of these two companies, we will have our first
truly nationwide network that is linked to the world. With this
partnership, we can further facilitate the flow of international
commerce. This is especially exciting for many of the eastern
communities that have been served by US Airways for as many as 50 years
or more. These communities will not be left behind; they will become
full-scale participants in the new global economy.
The legal framework is also evolving to adapt to the changing
marketplace. Fragmented protectionist bilateral agreements are rapidly
being replace by ``open skies'' and liberalized regimes on a bilateral
and even multilateral basis. Eventually, multilateral regimes will
emerge. The United States now has taken the lead in opening the
international skies. Now the market place is responding to the
opportunity created through U.S. government bipartisan leadership.
When the U.S. deregulated the domestic airline industry more than
20 years ago, we freed the industry to respond more efficiently to the
ever-evolving needs of customers. At the same time, we enabled U.S.
airlines to demonstrate to the world the benefits that come from a
deregulated marketplace. During the past two decades, consumers have
enjoyed improved efficiencies, services and price options. Through this
merger, U.S. airlines once again can demonstrate the consumer benefits
of a more open marketplace--this time on a global scale. At the same
time, this agreement will completely fulfill the promise of domestic
deregulation by enabling more American air travelers to more fully
enjoy a global network of seamless service and the benefits of open
competition.
But it is not just domestic consumer demand to which we must
respond in order to thrive. We must remain competitive, in a rapidly
changing international environment. Multi-national carriers in Europe
and Asia are responding to the new marketplace opportunities. The
greater efficiencies resulting from this merger will improve services
and bring down prices, thus enhancing global competitiveness. The new
merged airline is positioned to compete head to head with the leading
carriers of Europe and Asia, as these airlines are undergoing a similar
transformation--although at a slower pace. Allowing U.S. customers to
respond to the new global market, we can bolster the world leadership
of our industry. This merger is an important step in doing so.
For our nation to continue to lead this industry on an
international scale, we must also have the vision to see beyond the
historical constraints of a fragmented aviation system. We must
recognize that an open, global marketplace is inevitable and the
aviation industry will be no exception.
Now in the rapidly changing legal and economic environment of the
world, our industry must continually evolve to meet consumer demand.
This union provides the ideal free-market response to this rising
consumer demand for international air travel. It reflects the needs of
an increasingly interconnected global marketplace. Such an airline is
well-positioned to extend the benefits of deregulation to the emerging
global marketplace.
The benefits of the union will be substantial domestically as well
as internationally. A merger of US Airways and United will have clear
and dramatic positive effects on competition in domestic markets. Both
the economy and consumers will reap the benefits of this enhanced
competition and improved service. For the US Airways family--from our
employees to the communities we serve--this partnership will create a
host of new opportunities. Our customers, too, will enjoy substantial
benefits, including easier-than-ever access to the world. For all
involved, the benefits that will arise with this new airline are
significant.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my perspective with you.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Johnson.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT L. JOHNSON
Mr. Johnson. Chairman DeWine, Senator Kohl, and members of
the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to be here this
afternoon. I am the founder and CEO of BET Holdings, a
multimedia company whose principal business is operating the
BET Cable Network, a 24-hour basic cable programming service
that reaches 60 million homes and is the preeminent business
serving the entertainment and information needs of African-
Americans. From an initial investment of a half-a-million
dollars by TCI in 1980, BET Holdings celebrates its 20th
anniversary with a market capitalization of approximately $2.5
billion. I own 65 percent of the shares of BET Holdings.
The recently announced acquisition of US Air by United
Airlines has created for me another historic and exciting
opportunity. I have agreed to purchase certain assets of US
Airways operating out of Reagan National Airport and will be
launching DC Air. I do so not to create an African-American-
owned airline, though it will be that. I do so not just to make
sure that air transportation remains competitive, though I will
definitely do that.
Rather, I do so and I believe, like my fellow panelist
here, Mr. Neeleman, to build a great and successful airline
that I believe with all my heart will benefit the Washington
area, where I have lived for over 20-plus years, offer high-
quality service and value to passengers traveling to and from
DC, and make us all proud that our airline is the absolute best
to fly.
My vision for DC Air is straightforward: To build on the
well-established East Coast service that Washington area
passengers have come to rely on from Washington National
Airport, and I focus on this word ``rely.'' The three million
people who fly from 43 cities to and from Washington National
Airport expect that service to be there every day, and I assure
you that is our focus, 43 cities flying to and from Reagan
National Airport.
They expect us also to provide safe, reliable, high-quality
service at competitive prices to customers and communities in
this area, and I focus on those two words, ``safe'' and
``competitive,'' and I assure you this airline will meet those
tests.
We also expect to compete vigorously on price and service
in the market we serve. Now, some of you on the panel,
Senators, have raised the question as to whether or not DC Air
can compete as a result of being a byproduct or a spin-off of
United and US Air. Let me assure you, I did not achieve the
things I have achieved in American society, a graduate of the
University of Illinois, a Master's Degree from Princeton,
building a $2.5 billion company, by not being able to compete
in the American system.
I admit that the airline business is not an industry that I
was born into. Neither was the communications industry. But it
is definitely a business I am confident I can master by not
only focusing my innate intelligence on the issue and my self-
determination to succeed, but also by hiring talented
executives, and I have done that when I hired Bruce Ashby, a
14-year veteran of the airline industry, to serve as the acting
President of DC Air, and the talent that Bruce brings I am sure
will attract other talented individuals.
Our goal also is to facilitate the growth and economic
development that accompanies air service and development and
maintain an airline that the Washington community will be proud
to call its hometown carrier.
Let me make one other point. Unlike the other major
airlines based in cities who serve Washington's Reagan National
Airport, we do not see Washington as another spoke in a vast
hub-and-spoke system and we will not provide service from
Washington only to a handful of hub cities. Rather, Washington
is our home base. Washington and the 43 communities we will
serve from Washington is our entire business. We are focused on
the needs of our customers in these cities and committed to
providing them the service they deserve.
As a result of this transaction, we will become the largest
carrier at Reagan Washington National Airport. We will offer
111 daily departures from Washington to 43 cities with a fleet
of 37 aircraft. On day one, 29 of those aircraft will be jets
and we plan to become an all-jet carrier as we go forward.
In addition, we are ready to begin discussions with other
major airlines, such as American, Delta, Continental, and
Northwest, to seek out partnering opportunities such as code
sharing and frequent flyer arrangements. We see these as
beneficial to our passengers, who would be able to earn
frequent flyer miles in the major airline programs while flying
DC Air. We believe our services at National Airport will be
perceived by these carriers as a desirable feature of the
extended network.
As I said, Senators, in summing up, I am in this game to
compete. I have an enormous investment both of time, money, and
prestige in this, and there is absolutely no way I am not going
to pursue every opportunity to compete, whether it is against
JetBlue, whether it is against United, whether against American
or Delta, to assure a maximum return on my invested dollars.
Thank you, sir.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Johnson, thank you very much for your
testimony.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Johnson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Robert L. Johnson
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Kohl, and Member of the Subcommittee,
my name is Robert Johnson. I am founder and Chief Executive Officer of
BET Holdings, Inc., a multi-media company whose principal business is
the operations of the BET Cable Network, a 24-hour basic cable
programming service that reaches 60 million cable households.
From an initial investment of $500,000 by Tele-Communications, Inc.
in 1980, BET Holdings celebrates it 20th Anniversary with a market
capitalization of approximately $2.5 billion dollars and is the
preeminent business serving the entertainment and information needs of
African Americans.
The recently announced acquisition of US Airways by United Airlines
has created for me another historic and exciting opportunity. I have
agreed to purchase certain assets currently operated by US Airways out
of Reagan National Airport and will be launching DC Air. I do so not to
create an African American owned airline, though it will be that. I do
so not just to make sure that air transportation remains competitive,
though I will do that. Rather, I do so to build a great and successful
company that I believe with all my heart will benefit the Washington
area, offer high quality service and value to passengers traveling to
and from DC, and make us all proud that ``our airline'' is the best to
fly.
My vision for DC Air is straightforward: to build on the well-
established East Coast service from Washington's National Airport that
Washington-area passengers have come to rely on; to provide safe,
reliable, high-quality service, at competitive prices to customers and
communities in this area; to compete vigorously on price and service in
the markets we serve; to facilitate the growth and economic development
that accompanies air service; and to develop and maintain an airline
that the Washington community will be proud to call its hometown
carrier.
In terms of its development and its creation, DC Air is a product
of the United/US Airways merger, and that is great news for consumers.
Why?
The creation of a new airline is no small task in this intensely
competitive industry. New entrant carriers face numerous obstacles such
as high, fixed start-up costs, the lack of a strong identity, and an
unproven route structure and business plan. DC Air, however, is not a
typical airline startup company. Benefiting from the experience and
expertise of United and US Airways personnel, we intend to build upon a
proven network anchored at Washington's National Airport. DC Air will
be a viable and totally independent competitor from Day One. At the
same time, it will avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that often confront
and, in many cases, overwhelm new entrant carriers in this industry. DC
Air will be the largest carrier (measured by number of departures) at
Washington's premier, close-in airport, offering 111 daily departures,
flown by 37 aircraft, serving 43 airports, extending as far as Maine,
Florida, Kansas City. And as DC Air develops, we will assess
opportunities to expand service to additional communities.
For over several decades in some cases, great American cities like
Albany, Allentown, Birmingham, Buffalo, Burlington, Charleston,
Columbia, Greensboro, Greenville, Huntsville, Knoxville, Lewisburg,
Manchester, Morgantown, Norfolk, Roanoke, Rochester and Syracuse, among
others, have enjoyed nonstop air service to the heart of the nation's
capital. These communities have relied upon this extensive service
network, which has provided significant commercial, trade, economic
development, and governmental relations benefits for these important
cities.
The network has been maintained during periods of economic growth
and recession, during harsh winters and humid Washington summers.
Sustained service to many of these cities is made possible by the
efficiency of a network that is centered at the beautifully renovated,
convenient Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
DC Air is fully committed to sustaining and enhancing this network
of service that links these critical American cities to our nation's
capital. As a new entrant, DC Air will provide frequent, competitively
priced air service, ultimately with an all-jet fleet. Retaining
synergies of the current route system is absolutely vital to ensure the
important access for these communities to Washington, D.C.
History clearly shows that as air carriers acquire the coveted,
valued slots at Washington National, they use those slots in the most
profitable way--in service to their hometown hub cities. In fact,
excluding US Airways, the principal U.S. carriers serving National
Airport only do so from their hubs or focus cities: America West from
its hub in Columbus, Ohio; American from its hubs and international
gateways in Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas, New York-JFK, and Miami;
Continental from its hubs in Cleveland, Newark, and Houston; Delta from
its hubs in Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Dallas, its New York-JFK
international gateway, and its Delta Shuttle cities, New York-LaGuardia
and Boston; Northwest from its hubs in Detroit, Memphis and
Minneapolis; TWA from its hub in St. Louis and its New York-JFK
international gateway; and United from its hub in Chicago O'Hare and
its Miami international gateway.
Only US Airways, the current hometown, Washington-based carrier,
offers breadth of service to the Washington passenger, serving not just
its hubs in Charlotte, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but also 46
additional communities each day. That is why the creation of the
hometown D.C. carrier is so critical to the preservation of a route
system that has served medium and small cities throughout the eastern
United States for so many decades. That is why themerger proposal
reflects the strong conviction of each of the three principal players
that not only must competition be preserved in the D.C. metropolitan
area, but that new competition must come in the form of a carrier able,
willing, and completely dedicated to preserving and enhancing the
existing network of service which the citizens of so many of these
cities have come to rely.
The prospects for vigorous new competition and improved quality of
service to these communities are boundless. DC Air is up to the
challenge and is eager to assume the historic commitment to these great
American communities by providing safe, reliable, high-quality service
with outstanding employees.
I appreciate that the airline industry is unique in many ways, and
I further appreciate that the industry is highly unionized. I welcome
all employees--whether union or non-union--to the DC Air family. My
plan is to provide fully competitive compensation and benefits
packages, while fostering an environment of participation and common
goals for all our employees. This plan, I believe, will result in high
job satisfaction among DC Air employees, which, in turn, will translate
into the top-quality service our passengers should expect and demand.
STARTUP OF OPERATIONS
To assist in shaping and realizing the vision of DC Air, Bruce
Ashby has been named acting President of DC Air. Bruce has 14 years of
airline experience, most recently with US Airways, where he held the
position of senior vice president--corporate development. Prior to
that, he held the positions of senior vice president--planning and vice
president --financial planning and analysis. Before joining US Airways
in April 1996, he held corporate officer positions at Delta Air Lines,
where he was vice president of marketing development, and at United
Airlines, where he was vice president of financial planning and
analysis and vice president & treasurer. Bruce played a key role in the
formation of three ``airline-within-an-airline'' units: MetroJet by US
Airways, Delta Express, and Shuttle by United, all of which were
successfully launched and grown by these carriers, and continue to
operate today. Bruce's broad background at a senior management level in
the areas of airline finance, planning, marketing, operations, and
labor negotiations will prove invaluable to DC Air.
As I mentioned earlier, unlike a typical airline startup, which
might begin with one or two airplanes flying one or two routes, DC Air
will be a fully operational airline serving 43 communities from
National Airport with 111 daily departures. This plan brings important
consumer benefits, by providing nonstop service and a new, competitive
force to the 43 communities that we plan to serve, 36 of which are
served from Washington's Dulles airport well.
To enable this level of startup, DC Air has entered into a
memorandum of understanding with United Airlines, as part of the
proposed United-US Airways merger, that will provide DC Air, from Day
One, with the hard assets it requires to mount its operations. These
include 222 departure and arrival slots at Washington National Airport;
necessary gates and related airport facilities, for which DC Air will
assume the leases; and the operations of one of its commuter airline
subsidiaries, including the management staff, turboprop aircraft, and
related assets. In addition, during a brief transition period in which
DC Air will build its own fleet, United will ensure near-term aircraft
availability through customary contractual ``wet-lease'' relationships
for up to ten B-737-200 aircraft and up to 19 regional jet aircraft. In
short, DC Air will have the necessary people, aircraft, and airport
rights and facilities from Day One.
In addition to the Day One hard assets, United has agreed in the
memorandum of understanding to provide DC Air, if DC Air so requests,
with certain supporting services at market rates. These services are
typically purchased by airlines, and include items such as fuel,
occasional use gate agreements, station-handling contracts, and
standard industry interline ticketing and baggage agreements. DC Air is
free to purchase any and all of these services on the open market from
the numerous other providers of such services.
It is critical to appreciate that none of these understandings
compromise DC Air's independence.
We are rapidly moving through the process of turning the vision of
DC Air into an operating reality. We have begun discussions with
aircraft manufacturers in order to build our long-term all-jet fleet of
aircraft. We are drafting the definitive documentation with United
Airlines to implement our memorandum of understanding. We will soon be
entering into detailed discussions with the DOT and FAA to obtain the
required permits and certificates. And, we are engaged in working with
the federal, state and local governments and community leaders to
ensure that their needs are met.
In addition, we are ready to begin discussions with other major
airlines, such as American, Delta, Continental and Northwest, to seek
out partnering opportunities such as code-sharing and frequent flyer
arrangements. We see these as beneficial to our passengers, who would
thus be able to earn frequent flyer miles in these other major airline
programs while flying DC Air. We believe our service at National
Airport will be perceived by these carriers as a desirable feature of
their extended networks.
SERVICE
DC Air's initial aircraft fleet will be composed of turboprop
aircraft operated by DC Air employees, plus 19 regional jets obtained
through an industry contractual relationship with current US Airways
affiliates and 10 Boeing 737-200s obtained through a wet-lease
arrangement with United Airlines.
Currently, the market that DC Air will serve are flown by US
Airways with 34 percent turboprop departures and 66 percent jet
departures. Of the 111 daily departures to be flown by DC Air, 25
percent will be turboprops and 75 percent jet departures. We will move
to an all-jet fleet of aircraft over the first few years of operation;
ultimately 100 percent of DC Air's service will be flown by jets.
DC Air intends to retain service to the communities it serves. One
of the key benefits that comes to the communities we serve is that we
are purchasing from United all of the slotsrequired to serve these
communities. Were the slots to be divided up among several larger
carriers, none of these carriers would have sufficient slots to serve
all the communities and each would naturally tend to add service to
high-volume markets, such as hubs and focus cities where they already
have a significant presence. Conversely, DC Air is committed to
continuing service to all of our mid-size and smaller communities, and
its sole focus is on serving these communities with the highest quality
operation. Access by these 43 cities to the heart of the nation's
capital will be assured.
COMPETITION
DC air will provide Day One competition to the Washington, DC area,
with competitive pricing and high-quality service.
DC Air will offer nonstop competition to larger incumbent carriers
from National Airport in eight of its 43 markets: Atlanta, Georgia;
Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit,
Michigan; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. These constitute 22 of its 111 daily departures, or 19
percent. All eight of these markets are also served from Washington's
Dulles airport.
In addition, DC Air will compete in 28 markets with service
currently offered from Dulles Airport: Albany, Buffalo, Rochester,
Syracuse and White Plains, New York; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Hartford,
Connecticut; Burlington, Vermont; Charleston, Columbia and Greenville,
South Carolina; Greensboro, North Carolina; Charleston, West Virginia;
Dayton, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Kansas City, Missouri; Nashville
and Knoxville, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana;
Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia; Portland, Maine; Providence,
Rhode Island; and Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida. These
constitute 70 of its 111 daily departures, or 63 percent.
In seven of its markets, DC Air will face no direct competition at
National or Dulles airports. These include two designated Essential Air
Service markets (Lewisburg and Morgantown, West Virginia), as well as
Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Manchester,
New Hampshire; and West Palm Beach, Florida. Washington's National
Airport represents the only nonstop link for these communities to the
nation's capital.
SUMMARY
DC Air is an airline that works. It works for our customers, who
will receive top-quality service at competitive prices between
Washington's premier airport and the forty-three other cities we plan
to serve. It works for our many mid-size and small communities, because
it will retain nonstop service to National from those communities that
otherwise would likely be converted to connecting service over another
carrier's hub. It works for our employees, who will enjoy the benefits
of working for a competition-focused, all-jet carrier with a clearly
defined mission. And it ensures that airline competition will grow and
thrive here in Washington.
______
Robert L. Johnson, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BET
Holdings II, Inc.
Robert L. Johnson is the founder, chairman and chief executive
officer of BET Holdings II, Inc., the leading Black-owned and operated
media-entertainment company in the United States. With the mission of
established BET as the most-valued consumer brand within the Black
marketplace, BET has enjoyed extraordinary financial and strategic
success since its inception in 1980. For two consecutive years, BET
Holdings, Inc. has been recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the
``Best Small Companies in America.''
From 1976 to 1979, Johnson served as vice president of Government
Relations for the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), a trade
association representing more than 1,500 cable television companies.
Prior to joining the NCTA, Johnson was press secretary for the
Honorable Walter E. Fauntroy, Congressional Delegate from the District
of Columbia. Johnson previously held positions at the Washington Urban
League and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Johnson serves on the following boards: US Airways; Hilton Hotels
Corporation; General Mills; Gerald Stevens; United Negro College Fund;
National Cable Television Association's Academy of Cable Programming;
and the American Film Institute. Johnson is also a member of the Board
of Governors for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH.
Major awards received by Johnson include: 1997 Broadcasting & Cable
Magazine's Hall of Fame Award; CTAM's Grand Tam Award; Cablevision
Magazine's 20/20 Vision Award which lists him as one of the twenty most
influential people in the cable industry; an NAACP Image Award;
National Women's Political Caucus' Good Guys Award; a Distinguished
Alumni Aware from Princeton University; and the President's Award from
the National Cable Television Association.
Johnson is a graduate of the University of Illinois and holds a
master's in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Johnson
resides in Washington, DC with his wife, Sheila, and their two
children.
BET Holdings operates five major cable channels: Black
Entertainment Television, a 24-hour programming service targeting
African-American consumers that now reaches more than 60 million U.S.
homes and more than 90% of all Black cable households; BET On Jazz: The
Jazz Channel \TM\ and BET International \TM\, 24-hour jazz programming
services reaching more than 2 million domestic and 1 million
international subscribers respectively; BET Action Pay-Per-View, a pay-
per-view channel that reaches more than 10 million subscribers; and BET
Gospel, which was launched in December, 1998, and features
inspirational speakers and musical programming. In 1998, Johnson
established BET Pictures II and BET Arabesque Films to produce and
market Afican-American themed film releases and made for TV movies,
respectively.
BET Holdings has also leveraged its brand identity into new
businesses outside the cable industry. These businesses include direct
ownership of BET Arabesque Books, the only line of original African-
American romance novels written by Afican-American authors; and co-
ownership with Vanguard Media, Inc. of an impressive roster of
magazines of Afican-American and urban targeted magazines. Those titles
include:
BET Weekend--a glossy magazine reaching 1.8 million
readers and focusing on lifestyles, arts and entertainment. It is
circulated once a month in selected Sunday newspapers in 10 major urban
markets;
Emerge--a provocative issues-oriented magazine providing
news, commentary and analysis for an upscale African-American
readership of 300,000 on a range of topics including politics,
technology, personal financial and the arts;
Heart & Soul--a circulation of 400,000 and geared toward
African-American women with information on how to live well and stay
fit;
Honey--a multi-cultural publication focusing on fashion,
entertainment and lifestyle for today's modern woman; and
IMPACT--a bi-weekly trade publication focusing on the
business of urban entertainment, including the IMPACT Super Summit, the
leading urban music trade conference.
Other BET Holdings ventures include: BET.com, an interactive web
site based upon a joint venture with Liberty Digital, News Corporation,
USA Networks, and Microsoft; BET SoundStage Restaurant, an
entertainment-themed restaurant in Largo, Maryland; BET SoundStage
Club, a dance club on Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World Resort in
Orlando; BET On Jazz Restaurant, a fine dining restaurant in
Washington; Tres Jazz, a restaurant located inside the Paris Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas; and BET Movies/STARZ!, a premium movie channel
joint venture with Starz Encore Group LLC.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Neeleman.
STATEMENT OF DAVID NEELEMAN
Mr. Neeleman. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Senator
Kohl, other distinguished members of the subcommittee. I, too,
am grateful for the opportunity to come here and share a little
bit of my insight. Although I am not as old as some of the
other panelists, I have spent my whole adult life in the
airline business.
Senator DeWine. We are not sure who you are referring to.
Mr. Wolf. Whoever it was, we did not like it. [Laughter.]
Senator DeWine. They are all shaking their heads, Mr.
Neeleman.
Senator Torricelli. I would start over. [Laughter.]
Senator DeWine. At least he did not refer to the committee.
Mr. Neeleman. I have plenty of gray hair to show that I
have been in this business for a while----
Senator Leahy. I will take hair of any color. [Laughter.]
Mr. Neeleman. Could I have my time back now?
Senator DeWine. It is about up, Mr. Neeleman. [Laughter.]
Mr. Neeleman. But I have been, in my whole adult life, I
have been in the low-fare business and one of the greatest
pleasures that I have as a CEO of a low-fare airline is to
provide travel opportunities to millions of people that would
not have been able to travel if it were not for our great
fares.
Today, I come on behalf of 600-plus employees at JetBlue
Airways. In just our short little time in existence, we have
been able to prove that if you provide great service with a
great product with unbelievably low fares, people fly and you
can be successful. We are going to add 40 airplanes over the
next 4 years, but at that point in time, we are still going to
be small. We are going to be a little guy.
I have read a lot of interesting things in the press over
the last few weeks since this arrangement was announced, but
one particular item caught my eye and it was a quote by
actually the President of United, Ron Dutta, where he said
that, and I am very compelled by their arguments, that this
will create a finished network in the United States and if
three or four airlines survive from this, that would be of
great service to the passengers of the United States for the
reasons they have explained. But he also said that there would
also be a dozen or so regionals that would then be allowed to
thrive and offer low fares.
I just want to make sure that that is the case, and I think
there are several ways. We are not against mergers per se,
having been an individual who sold one of my airlines to
Southwest Airlines. It worked out good for our employees and it
worked out good for the people in the Western part of the
United States. But I think there are ways, and maybe there are
some things that can be done to maybe make this palatable so
that competition can be allowed to thrive in the areas.
For example, the Department of Transportation worked for a
couple of years on some competitive guidelines that they wanted
to enact. They really had to do with extreme measures, what we
call capacity dumping, where airlines would go into a market in
a hub-dominated airport and the incumbent carriers would use
extreme measures to try and eradicate competition. Those
competitive guidelines have never been enacted, for example,
because they have been vehemently opposed by the major airlines
that are now wanting something from the Justice Department. So
there are things, I think, that there are some quid pro quos
that could be discussed, where we could create a finished
network as well as opportunities to thrive.
Also, in the area of gate availability, Senator Edwards
talked about Charlotte, for example. We have had difficulty
getting into many airports that we would like to fly into. We
will not fly into an airport where we have to sit and wait for
gates and put our passengers through that kind of experience.
We refuse to go to those airports. And so if some gates could
be freed up and some slots.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Robert Johnson
and what he has been able to accomplish and I wish I had his
network as one of our 24 channels live on our airplanes, but
low fares are created by airplanes with great economics and
with big passengers, and I fear that the plan that DC Air has
is actually constricting the numbers of seats and the numbers
of flights out of Washington National Airport.
Regional jets are used primarily to cater to business
travelers that pay the highest fares and thereby eliminating
the leisure traveler. If you have this construction, there have
been studies that show that there are 16 percent less seats
that will be available out of Washington National and 8 percent
less flights. That will cause the leisure traveler to be
eliminated from this equation and they will have to go to
another airport in the Washington area, which will, in turn, be
controlled by United. So obviously it is a very creative plan,
but I fear that it will have dire consequences for the American
consumer.
Just in conclusion, we have not asked for any handouts. We
have not asked for any government subsidies. All we want is a
fair chance to compete. We are excited about what we have been
able to accomplish so far and we will do it in the future.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Neeleman, thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Neeleman follows:]
Prepared Statement of David Neeleman
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am grateful for the opportunity to testify this morning on behalf
of JetBlue Airway's more than 600 employees.
JetBlue Airways is New York's low fare hometown airline. This is
more than a marketing slogan, its really who we are.
As a new entrant, low fare carrier, I am convinced that the only
way to always offer the traveling public affordable airfares is to
remain a low cost company. In order for JetBlue to remain a low cost
company, we needed: unprecedented financing, $130 million; a fleet of
brand new modern jets, the Airbus A320; a sound business plan, offering
low fares and great service to the world's busiest travel market New
York City; and finally an experienced and exceptional management team.
I believe we have all four of these ingredients and thus far, the
traveling public seems to agree.
These cornerstones of our business, coupled with a focus on
productivity and efficiency, have allowed us to hire at above market
wages and to deliver ``the JetBlue Experience'' to more than 200,000
customers.
Having inaugurated service in February of this year with flights
between New York City and Buffalo, we just took delivery of our fourth
new aircraft last week. After the live satellite television screens are
installed at each of its 162 leather seats, it will enter low fare
service next week to and from Orlando. Shortly after launching Orlando,
JetBlue will serve Rochester, New York and Burlington, Vermont, two of
the highest priced travel destinations in America. By the end of the
year, we will have ten brand new aircraft in ten cities and this growth
pace will continue for at least four years and forty aircraft.
Importantly, even at this pace, I know that in four years JetBlue
will still be a very small regional carrier. This is precisely why
certain aspects of the proposed merger, and its potential consequences
for the entire industry, are of concern to JetBlue.
From a macro perspective, if this deal is approved, I believe other
large carriers will feel the need gain additional market strength in
order to keep pace with United. Whether or not such moves are
economically justified or in the best interest of their shareholders or
customers, I still believe this will occur.
This industry consolidation could conceivably result in three or
four major carriers carrying upwards of 85 percent of all US domestic
traffic. As an entrepreneur who has started and then sold companies,
including an airline, I am not against airline mergers per se nor am I
against the concept of this merger. However, industry consolidation
such as would occur through this merger, and others, absent protection
for smaller carriers trying to compete fairly in the domestic
marketplace, can only be seen as harmful to the American consumer.
When there are fewer companies competing in a market, any market,
prices tend to rise. Small carriers, whether low fare in nature like
JetBlue or otherwise, must be assured a level playing field and the
ability to compete. To ensure the consumer's continued access to
multiple carriers and low fares as the industry consolidates, small
airlines must be afforded access into concentrated airports as well as
access to commercially viable facilities such as gates and counter
space at these airports. While some carriers claim airspace is the most
pressing issue facing the US airline industry, I believe the ability of
small carriers to access concentrated airports and obtain adequate
facilities is the most critical issue facing new entrant carriers.
Also, as carriers consolidate their systems and pare down
overlapping or inconsistent routes, lessening consumer choices, they
will be in a far stronger position to utilize their suddenly available
excess equipment to the disadvantage of their competitors, especially
smaller carriers and new entrants.
As this deal is reviewed, I believe Congress and the Department's
of Justice and Transportation should carefully examine these negative
ramifications and consider ways for United and US Airways to eliminate
these and similar problems. One approach which may prove to be a good
starting point would be to strengthen and enact the Department of
Transportation's Competition Guidelines while also increasing the use
of its unfair practices enforcement powers. I suspect the need for the
Guidelines may prove greater than ever as the industry consolidates.
On a micro perspective, this deal presents several areas that I
believe need to be addressed. Included here are specific airport access
and facilities issues as well as specific city-pair routings where the
only carrier in several large markets will be the new United. Also, in
this regard, I believe that the proposed DC Air presents and unworkable
attempt to solve the obvious hub domination issue that will exist in
the Washington DC-Baltimore metropolitan area.
From the press accounts I have read, DC Air is poised to become
Washington DC's new low fare airline; and it is suggested that it will
be profitable too. I have a tremendous amount of respect for its
potential new CEO, Robert Johnson. He is one of America's premier
entrepreneurs with astellar track record.
Yet the deal itself is not only bad for consumers in the entire
Washington metropolitan region, it is bad for consumers throughout the
eastern United States who visit Washington on business or leisure
travel.
United Airlines is by far the dominant carrier today at Dulles
Airport. After the merger, its dominance will increase. After the
merger, United will also become the carrier at BWI. And right in the
middle, at Reagan National Airport, DC Air will supposedly eliminate
that new regional dominance.
DC Air will be flying a fleet of jets, most of which will have 50
or fewer seats. Its costs, as a so-called ``virtual airline'' that wet-
leases the vast majority of its operational assets and personnel from
United, will be high, as will its own operating costs given its
equipment type and proposed route structure. In fact, with the proposal
route system as I have seen it, most of DC Air's markets will have far
less capacity than those markets receive today with US Airways.
With a decreased supply, and even a steady demand, prices for
consumers in all DC Air's markets will likely increase. Since the
deregulation of the domestic airline industry in 1978, passenger
traffic at Washington's National Airport has actually decreased by
360,000, a drop of more than five percent. Operations at National have
also decreased during this period by more than 10 percent. Under DC
Air's proposal, not only will the daily capacity further decrease at
National Airport, by 16 percent, but so too will the number of daily
operations, by 8 percent. With less supply into slot-controlled
National Airport, leisure travelers seeking lower fares will likely
find them unavailable and be forced to utilize the two remaining United
dominated airports in the region.
I do not believe the DC Air proposal, which will significantly
reduce capacity at the already under utilized and artificially slot-
controlled National Airport, should be rubber-stamped by the regulatory
authorities.
National is a unique airport. New entrants have effectively been
barred since 1986 as slots cannot be purchased at any price and lease
prices are prohibitive. Even with the new FAA Reauthorization law,
there is no end in sight to National Airport's slot regime which has
yielded less than a one percent growth rate in passenger traffic over
the past twenty-five years while total domestic enplanements have grown
by more than 200 percent in this same period. This is clearly not the
most efficient utilization of the taxpayer's most scarce aviation
resource. Given the new competitive landscape that will be painted by
this deal, coupled with National Airport's unique attributes, I believe
the Department of Justice should insist that a portion of the slots
that DC Air seeks to purchase at a below market price be returned to
the government, from whence they came at no cost, and be allocated to
qualified new entrant carriers who will legitimately spur competition.
Mr. Chairman, in the end, the post-deregulation airline landscape
is littered with many start-up carriers that have failed due to a
combination of weak management, and inability to achieve low costs and/
or a poor business plan. JetBlue is not, nor will it become, this type
of carrier. We have performed our due diligence and have successfully
begun to implement our business plan in the largest travel market in
the nation. All that we seek from those reviewing this merger is to
correct some of its negative aspects and afford us a fair chance to
grow our franchise and create further opportunities for customers to
enjoy the JetBlue Experience.
In closing, I am reminded of a forward-looking statement recently
made by the President of United Airlines. He said that with this deal,
for domestic purposes, United would become a ``finished network.''
Possibly speculating on others in the industry, he added that consumers
would benefit most from the competition of but three or four national
carriers and dozens of smaller regional carriers. Frankly, with but one
reservation, I cannot altogether disagree with his prognostication.
However, my reservation is simply that these dozens of smaller regional
carriers he refers to have a fair opportunity to compete in every
market they so choose. This is JetBlue's chief concern.
I appreciate your asking me to testify today and look forward to
any questions you may have.
Thank you.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T4755A.001
Senator DeWine. The Senate now has a vote, and at this
point we are going to excuse Professor Kahn because he is
wanted on the other side of the Capitol in Congressman Henry
Hyde's Judiciary Committee. Professor, thank you for joining
us.
When we get back, Mr. Cooper will be our final witness and
then we will go to questions. Thank you very much.
[Recess.]
Senator DeWine. We will reconvene. Thank you all very much
for your patience.
Mr. Cooper, it is your turn. Thank you for joining us.
STATEMENT OF MARK N. COOPER
Mr. Cooper. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank
you for having me today. This is one of those cases where going
last is actually going best because each of the members of the
committee has spoken. The problems that I will speak about have
shown the empirical analysis, 20 years of empirical analysis,
and this is the experience of the American consumer.
There is a problem out there and this merger will make it
worse. There are some mergers to which policy makers should say
no and this is one of them. This merger would reduce
competition in an industry that already suffers from a lack of
competition. It would trigger a round of mergers that would
lead consumers with fewer choices across the Nation. Professor
Kahn asked some questions. I actually will answer each of those
three questions, horizontal market power, network market power,
and a merger wave.
Measured at the national level, allowing the number one
airline to buy the number six airline violates the merger
guidelines of the Department of Justice. Those guidelines were
promulgated under the Reagan administration, affirmed under the
Clinton administration.
Viewed on an airport-by-airport basis, the merger violates
the guidelines in more than half a dozen airports, and
actually, every one of the airports Mr. Schumer mentioned, it
violates the guidelines, and that raises my count to about a
dozen.
On a route-by-route basis, there are numerous cities, we
have heard as many as 100, that would lose head-to-head
competition. And whether or not these are hub airports, when
you lose competition, you reduce choices and ultimately raise
prices. Twenty years of empirical evidence in this industry has
shown that when airports become concentrated, when competitors
leave markets, prices go up by 20 to 40 percent. My testimony
identifies 2 dozen examples of econometric studies that show
that, and you have your examples right there. Count the
airlines. Count what you lose. Those are 20 to 40 percent
increases by the reduction of competition. That is what the
consumer experiences. That is what Mr. Edwards, Mr. Kohl, Mr.
Leahy have talked about.
Of course, market power is evidenced not only in higher
prices but also with miserable service, and Mr. Schumer has
mentioned that. Since airlines do not face effective
competition, they do not have to respond at the level of
quality of service. So much for horizontal concentration.
The geographic extension that this merger would create
would create a denser national network, and those networks make
it less and less likely that competitors can attack any
individual market. As happens with all such networks, travelers
are locked into single line suppliers, through hubs have their
traffic concentrated, and then the travelers are further held
captive with code sharing, manipulation of reservation systems,
frequent flyer promotions, et cetera.
As those customers become more and more captured to those
airlines, entrants have difficulty attracting people for
segments. The necessary scale of entry gets larger. And, of
course, the ability of new entrants to get into airports is
restricted by anti-competitive practices, which Mr. Edwards and
Mr. Neeleman have mentioned.
Having gained those advantages, we end up with less
competition for the traveling public. The merger will also
trigger a round of mergers across the industry. What we are
moving from is fortress hubs to fortress regions, with national
networks that are sprinkled with hubs to hold passengers and
deny them choices.
Now, the interesting thing is, of course, is that the
proponents of the merger recognize their problem so they have
proposed a series of politically correct but economically
incorrect and useless band-aids to try and cover over the
problem. We have the promise of a 2-year price freeze, and it
is very difficult to figure out whether yield management will
change the percentage of tickets on any given flight so the
average price goes up. And besides, 2 years is not a very long
time. The damage to competition will be permanent. What happens
after 2 years? It does us no good.
We have the carve-out of a regional airline, which would
primarily own non-jets, as I understand it, and rent its jet
aircraft from the parent. The value in that airline is in those
slots and those slots can be flipped, turned over after 3
years, and again, the harm to competition is permanent, not
temporary.
We hear promises about routes that might be opened. We have
heard discussions about facilities, et cetera. Frankly, I do
not think this committee or the Department of Justice should
micromanage the industry by negotiating a series of specific
concessions about Syracuse or Pittsburgh or otherwise. We need
a public policy that comprehensively gives the consuming public
competition in the industry.
The only way to protect the consumer in this industry is to
provide competition. Allowing this merger to start a merger
wave will do exactly the opposite, and this is a major national
issue. The American public now travels, because of the growth
of income and the mobility of our society. We must have an
airline industry that is responsive, and the only way to get a
responsive industry is to have real competition. We believe
that this merger, starting the wave that will inevitably
follow, is a step in the wrong direction. Thank you.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Cooper, thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cooper follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Mark N. Cooper
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, My name is Dr. Mark N.
Cooper. I am Director of Research for the Consumer Federation of
America (CFA). CFA is the nation's largest consumer advocacy group. CFA
is a non-profit association of some 260 pro-consumer groups, with a
combined membership of 50 million, which was founded in 1968 to advance
the consumer interest through advocacy and education. I greatly
appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to offer our view
of the proposed United Airlines/US Airways merger.
There are some mergers to which policy makers and the Department of
Justice should just say ``no!'' This is one of them. This merger would
reduce competition in an industry that already suffers from a general
lack of competition. It would trigger a round of mergers that would
leave consumers with fewer and fewer choices across the nation. New
airlines would find it harder and harder to enter these more
concentrated, integrated markets that would result.
There was a time when airline problems were largely problems for
business travelers, but that has changed. The rapid growth of personal
income over the past decade has made air travel much more common among
residential consumers, in spite of sharply rising ticket prices. As a
result, consumer groups such as CFA have become more and more concerned
about the failures of the airline market--poor service and the abuse of
market power in a highly concentrated industry.
HORIZONTAL CONCENTRATION WOULD INCREASE IN MANY AIRPORTS
On a market-by-market basis the merger violates the Department of
Justice Merger Guidelines in more than half-a-dozen major airports
including Philadelphia, Dulles, National, Baltimore, Boston, La
Guardia, San Francisco and Orlando. There are numerous other smaller
airports and routes from smaller airports that would also be affected.
Whether they are hubs or not, the loss of head-to-head competition
imposes a burden on consumers by reducing choices and ultimately
increasing prices.
The empirical evidence in the airline industry shows that when
airports become concentrated or when competitors are removed from
already concentrated airport, prices go up, by as much as 20 to 40
percent. Econometric studies of market structure have consistently
shown that concentration on routes, at airports, and in the industry at
large are associated with higher fares (see Table 1). Analysis of
specific events--entry, exit and mergers--confirms these findings.
Similarly, estimates of the elimination or addition of one competitor
have been made.
The average traveler has few, if any choices, and they would become
fewer if this merger and the ones in its wake are approved. Generally,
we find that most routes have fewer than four carriers. National
average concentration ratios (Hirshman-Herfindahl Index or HHI)
typically are in the very high range. Measured at airports the HHI is
in the range of 3300--the equivalent of three airlines per airport.
Measured by city pairs, the HHI is closer to 5000--the equivalent of
two per route. Given such a high level of concentration, we should not
be surprised to find that anti-competitive behavior and changes in
market structure have a significant impact on fares. Exercising market
power is easy in such highly concentrated markets.
Market power is evidence both by higher prices wherever it exists
and miserable service. Since they do not face effective competition,
they do not feel compelled to improve quality. Flowing from this basic
observation, we find support for a number of traditional observations
about public policy. Actual competition is vastly more important than
the threat of competition. Barriers to entry play a critical role in
determining the level and nature of competition. Mergers tend to reduce
competition, increase prices and lower output.
FORTRESS HUBS AND IMPENETRABLE NETWORKS
The geographic extension that United is seeking and the denser
network that the merger would create make it less and less likely that
competitors will be able to attack these markets. As all such airline
networks do, it would lock travelers in by concentrating their flow
throughfortress hubs, coordinating scheduling at those hubs, and
binding them with frequent flier and other promotional programs. As
travelers fall more and more under the control of one airline, the
ability to new entrants to crack markets is reduced, as it become
harder and harder to attract passengers to flight segments. The
necessary scale of entry gets larger and larger.
The centerpiece of industry structure in the deregulated
environment--the hub and spoke network--is a constant source of public
policy concern. Part of the complexity of the analysis stems from the
fact that the characteristics of hubs that appear to confer market
power are both ``positive'' and negative. Just as competition can
create efficiencies so too can hub and spoke networks. Unfortunately,
in practice, the ``positive'' economic advantages of hub and spoke
networks have been immediately leverage with and overwhelmed by anti-
competitive actions to increase and exploit market power by incumbents
dominating hubs. Incumbents create barriers to entry by locking in
customers and disadvantaging competitors in a variety of ways.
Traffic is diverted to the dominant incumbents through a number of
marketing mechanisms that extends market power over travelers. These
include frequent flier programs, deals with travel agents to divert
traffic, manipulation of computerized reservation systems, code
sharing, and general policies of market segmentation.
The ability of competitors to enter hubs is undermined in a number
of ways. Access to facilities is impeded through a number of mechanisms
that preclude or raise the cost of entry. These mechanisms include
denial of gate space, extraction of excess profits on facilities, and
the inability of entrants to attract adequate passengers to establish a
presence.
Having gained this advantage, the incumbents can raise price,
without risking entry. Prices at hubs are higher. Profits at hubs are
higher. Studies that try to decompose the market power associated with
specific practices--hubbing, manipulation of computerized reservations
systems, frequent flier programs--also reach similar conclusions (see
Table 1).
A CASCADE OF CONCENTRATION
This merger will trigger a movement from fortress hubs to fortress
regions. We have already heard reports of retaliatory mergers that
would organize the country into core regions where largely captive
customers are funneled into national networks. The inconvenience and,
in many cases, the impossibility of inter-airline travel, give the
originating airline enhanced market power over the traveler.
Industry structure has become sufficiently concentrated to raise a
fundamental question about whether market forces are sufficient to
prevent the abuse of market power. Both at individual hubs and in the
industry as a whole, markets have or would become highly concentrated.
Attorney's General from 25 states filed comments in support of the
Department of Transportation's anti-predation rule which identified 15
airports at which the dominant firm had a market share in excess of 70
percent (see Table 2). This is the standard generally applied to
indicate monopoly status. This is not a small airport problem. Six of
the ten busiest airports in the country are on the list. Over one-third
of all passenger emplanements took place at these airports.
Moreover, the monopolized airports are building blocks of potential
national market power through concentration of the national industry.
For example, major pending merger/alliances or those being discussed in
the wake of the proposed United/US Air merger include five of the
nations busiest airports and eleven fortress hubs.
PROPOSED FIXES ARE INADEQUATE
Recognizing the severe problems that this merger faces, the merging
parties have offered a series of largely meaningless Band-Aids to try
to patch over the fundamental problem.
First, the new giant airline can easily increase it yield by
reducing the number of discounted seats available. With the immense
increase in market power up and down the East Coast that will be a
readily available strategy. Moreover, what happens after two years. The
damage to competition will be permanent, not temporary.
Second, they have proposed to carve out a new airline at National
airport. This addresses only one market and not in a very effective
manner. The airline simply cannot provide meaningful competition. The
airline is largely a commuter airline, with turboprops. Its jets will
be leased from United, which will make it difficult, if not impossible
to complete on price. The airline's primary assets will be valuable
landing slots and gates that will be fungible in three years. What
happens after that? The damage to competition will be permanent, not
temporary.
Third, we hear vague promises about extremely long haul,
continental and international routes that might support non-stop or
direct flights if the merged company could render the traveler captive.
CONCLUSION
The bottom line is clear. Temporary freezes, feeble spin-offs and a
few long distance flights cannot make up for the massive increase in
concentration that will result from this merger. With two decades of
econometric evidence about competitive problems at the levels of
structure, conduct and performance reinforced by detailed analysis of
recent events, one can only hope that the public policy debate will not
revert to the irrelevant question of whether deregulation served the
consumer interest. The trigger for public policy concern is, as it has
always should have been, whether anticompetitive practices are hurting
consumers. By every measure, the airlines are failing that test at
present. Allowing a merger wave to further concentrate the industry
would further diminish the competitive forces in the industry and is
not in the public interest.
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Senator DeWine. Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Johnson, while
it is fresh in your mind, do you want to respond to what Mr.
Cooper had to say? Let me just ask you if you would start with
his allegation that we are going to have a wave of mergers, we
are going to get into fortress regions now and the American
public is going to suffer. Mr. Goodwin or Mr. Wolf or Mr.
Johnson?
Mr. Wolf. Let me say that Mr. Cooper has insight into the
future that I simply do not possess. But in any event, what is
before this committee today and what is before the government
of the United States is the merger of these two airlines with
the least amount of overlap, I think, in the industry today,
and with the most amount of pro-competitive and pro-consumer
benefit if it is allowed to go forward.
US Airways is basically a north-south operator on the East
Coast of the United States of America, where we have about a 38
percent share. United has about a 1 percent share. If you look
at the communities that we serve, and by the way, we are proud
to say as an example we started flying from Charlotte to Paris
some limited number of weeks ago, a very big event for US
Airways, in Paris, in hosting a little function, we had
Governor Hunt there with us and the Governor sort of got me
aside and said, ``Steve, what I really want you to do for North
Carolina is to get us service to South America.'' I tried to
respond as positively as I could, but the truth of the matter
is I conveyed to him that probably not during his natural
lifetime nor mine would that happen.
As a result of this merger, North Carolina is going to have
one-stop service to multiple points of big name cities in all
of South America, one-stop service to Hong Kong and Beijing and
Tokyo. I mean, it is an immense plus for the consumers in the
cities that we serve.
Mr. Goodwin. Chairman DeWine.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Goodwin.
Mr. Goodwin. A couple of other points. Mr. Cooper alluded
to the fact that this was going to create regional mega-
carriers so that we would sort of divvy up the country. I think
that is inconsistent with what consumers want. Consumers are
telling us they want to have access to more places with more
frequency and more opportunities to travel so they can travel
on a given airline.
Senator DeWine. And at the same time, they want it cheaper.
I mean, we all want everything.
Mr. Goodwin. Absolutely. They all want it, and they want it
cheaper.
Senator DeWine. They all want it all.
Mr. Goodwin. But that flies in the face that the country is
going to get divvied up amongst a group of players. Every
other----
Senator DeWine. Mr. Goodwin, excuse me. I think the
premise, though, for that is what Mr. Cooper said and what some
of us fear is that this is going to set off a wave of mergers.
Once you have the new wave of mergers, you are going to be down
to three major airlines. Then you get into this fortress
region.
Mr. Goodwin. I cannot speculate on whether there is going
to be another round of mergers because I do not know whether
anyone else----
Senator DeWine. I would like for you to, because it is
important and we need to have this addressed. If you say you do
not know, that is fine, but we need for you to try to address
this because I think it is a public policy issue. We cannot
look at this merger in isolation--no one has a crystal ball,
but public policy, I think, demands that we look a little bit
forward beyond this immediate merger.
Mr. Goodwin. I agree with you. I think you have a tough
chore to look at the downstream effects of this and will there,
in fact, be further mergers. My only point, Mr. Chairman, is I
am not sure that there is another combination out there that
will satisfy the antitrust rules as they currently are applied
to our industry, that will satisfy the needs of the consumer,
that will satisfy the labor integration issues that any airline
merger surfaces. I do not know that there is another one out
there like this. So that is why it is difficult for me to give
you some definitive answer, but I do recognize the committee's
need to ask that question.
Mr. Johnson. Mr. Chairman.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Johnson. Let me respond to Mr. Cooper's comments
regarding DC Air. I think DC Air is a viable airline today
operating out of DC National and it will continue to be that
way. We will transition this airline as quickly as possible to
an all-jet airline. We focus only on the 43 cities we serve. As
I mentioned earlier, I have been in the Washington area, I pay
taxes here, have my business here for almost 30 years. I see no
reason to acquire this airline for the purpose of flipping it
and have no intention of doing so.
In addition, in terms of our relationship with United, as I
think was mentioned earlier in some of the testimony, we have
leases with United that are at arm's length, that are at fair
market prices, and these leases are done across the airline
industry. Thousands of departures a day are based on types of
leases from aircraft that are flown by United, US Airways,
Delta, and Northwest.
So there is nothing that is sort of unprecedented inwhat we
are doing at DC Air. We are providing a transition service from United
that we can walk away from with a 4-month notice and begin to operate
our own jet aircraft to these 43 cities.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Johnson, Mr. Neeleman said that under
DC Air's proposal, daily seat capacity will further decrease at
National Airport by 16 percent. The number of daily flights
will also decrease by 8 percent. Is that true, and if it is
true, what are we to make about that.
Mr. Johnson. It is not true.
Senator DeWine. It is not true?
Mr. Johnson. It is not true. The number of flights that we
have----
Senator DeWine. What are the figures, then?
Mr. Johnson. We have 111 slots, 222 daily departures, and
we will continue that. In fact, we will look to expand that to
some cities that we think by sort of reconfiguring our route
structure might benefit from more flights coming into the city.
We are going from turbo props, instantly from 66 percent jet to
75 percent jet. The regional jets that we are looking at, or
the jets that we are looking at, Boeing, for example, contacted
us. They have a new jet, 717, that seats, I think, close to 100
passengers.
We have not made any final decision on the configuration of
our fleet, but I can assure you that the three million
passengers, both business people and tourists who come to
Washington, DC, and Washington, DC, as you know, is a prime
tourist market, will continue to have available seats on DC
Air, and if we see there is a need for more seats, we certainly
have the financial capacity to reconfigure our fleet schedule
to meet it.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Neeleman and Mr. Cooper, do you want to
respond to that?
Mr. Neeleman. Well, obviously if the--the 16 percent, I
think, was a study taken by Sam Butrick, who is an industry
analyst, and it was based on the--in a lot of markets----
Senator DeWine. Based on what?
Mr. Neeleman. Based on, in a lot of markets, planes were
being substituted. Boeing 737's were being substituted for
regional jets. So the seats were going from 112 or 128 seats
down to 50 seats, so obviously there is a reduction there. But
I do not understand the intricacies of the deal. I just know
what I read, and if they have the opportunity to substitute
those planes for bigger airplanes later on, then there is a
possibility that that could increase again. This is the plan
that was submitted by them that has those reductions, but Mr.
Johnson obviously could buy some new, bigger airplanes and
expand that.
Mr. Wolf. Mr. Chairman.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Wolf.
Mr. Wolf. Could I just expand on that?
Senator DeWine. Certainly.
Mr. Wolf. Mr. Neeleman's point is absolutely correct. I
mean, a larger aircraft and a larger stage link is obviously
going to produce substantially lower unit cost. One of the
units here, Dave, is that some of these markets are 35, 50-seat
airplanes because that is how big the market is and you cannot
put a big airplane on it because it would be economically----
Senator DeWine. You are going to have to speak right into
that microphone.
Mr. Wolf. DC Air's fleet starts with three types of
aircraft, turbo prop aircraft, regional jet aircraft, and 737-
200 aircraft, and Bob Johnson and his acting president are
actively pursuing discussions right now with all the air frame
manufacturers about what is the best equipment to operate going
forward.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Goodwin, United has promised that it
will not raise its basic rates for 2 years, and we have talked
a little bit about this today, except to account for underlying
costs, such as fuel. As you certainly know, airlines use these
basic rates to set a wide range of different fares, and we have
all experienced it, being on a plane, how many different fares
there are and we have had a lot of testimony about it and we
understand why you do that. You have many different passengers
at different rates.
So even if United does not change its basic rates, it will
still retain, I assume, the ability to vary how many of its
tickets will be low-price tickets and how many will be high-
price tickets. Will you commit today that United will offer the
same percentage of low-price tickets on its flights? And let me
ask another question. How will you price your tickets on the
new routes that you intend to create?
Mr. Goodwin. Mr. Chairman, we have committed as part of
this transaction, as you know, to a 2-year fare freeze on
structured fares. Structured fares are full fares. They are 14-
day advance purchase fares or 21-day advance purchase fares, et
cetera.
We are willing to commit to an oversight process to ensure
that we stand behind that commitment because we believe very
strongly that that is an important part of this transaction, a
statement to the consumer that we want to demonstrate that we
are not going to raise fares, we are going to sort through this
transaction. Obviously, United Airlines' unit cost rates are
significantly lower than US Airways, given the network and size
of our business. We want to have the ability to integrate and
see what happens to the overall cost structure.
Senator DeWine. These fares that you have promised to keep
constant, what percentage, though, of passengers does that
consist of? On a given flight, how many on an average would be
paying that fare? In other words, how many would be affected by
your commitment? We just need to understand what we are talking
about.
Mr. Goodwin. Mr. Chairman, I understand that, but in order
for me to answer that, I need to make one other statement that
I did not cover before.
Senator DeWine. Sure.
Mr. Goodwin. Those structured fare also are the basis for
all other sale fares. So when we advertise a 30 percent off
sale or a 50 percent off sale, those come off of the 21-day
advance purchase fare. If you just take the structured fares
per se, they account for, in our airline's case, 45 percent of
our revenues.
Senator DeWine. Of your revenue, but what percentage of
passengers, because that is a different issue.
Mr. Goodwin. That number, I could not tell you off the top
of my head, but it is----
Senator DeWine. Ten percent? Twenty?
Mr. Goodwin. I will tell you what. I will get that answer
for you rather than speculate, because I do not know it.
Senator DeWine. All right. So the answer is, though, to our
question, we do not know--you cannot make a commitment, you are
not going to make a commitment about what the mix is going to
be, which ultimately will determine what the average person,
the typical person, the non-walk-up to the gate, buy a ticket
person, will be paying?
Mr. Goodwin. The non-walk-up----
Senator DeWine. Everybody else, most of us.
Mr. Goodwin. The leisure traveler?
Senator DeWine. Well, it is not just leisure. A lot of us
plan. People do plan some business that they have to do based
around this. I mean, the vast majority of passengers do not
come into the category which you have just stated you will
guarantee to be constant. The vast majority do not.
Mr. Goodwin. But Mr. Chairman, the vast majority come in at
a rate below----
Senator DeWine. Oh, I understand that. No, I understand.
All we are trying to do today--I think we are saying the same
thing--all we are trying to do today is determine what your
commitment to keep fares constant really means, and what I am
hearing from you, and then I will turn it over to Senator Kohl
because I have gone over my time, what I am hearing from you is
we will keep this basic rate which affects one in five
passengers. You cannot tell me exactly, but we know it is under
45 percent because that is what you said the dollar figure was
and we know this is where your major revenue comes from. So we
know it is maybe one in five. And you cannot guarantee anything
about the mix, the percentage mix, which you vary all the time
based upon how you maximize your profits, which you have a
right to do.
Mr. Goodwin. But it also is very seasonal. It is very
unique and different by each market. So it is very difficult
when you consider the thousands and thousands of combinations
to start trying to get that specific.
Senator DeWine. I understand.
Mr. Goodwin. So what we tried to do, Mr. Chairman, was to
find something that was very easy to monitor, very easy to
track, very easy for someone to hold us accountable for our
commitment.
Senator DeWine. All right. I appreciate that. My only point
is that for the average, the non-business, non-walk-up, pay-
full-fare person, I am not quite sure what your commitment
means, that is all.
Senator Kohl.
Senator Kohl. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Goodwin, you are, as the CEO of United, trying to
maximize profits or make investments to benefit your
shareholders stake. I mean, that is what we do as CEO's, and I
understand it and I respect that and I appreciate that. For
many of us, one inevitable conclusion is that a major part of
this deal is to eliminate a competitor, and by doing so, you
will make more money. And again, making money is not a bad
thing. It is a good thing in our society. When you run a
business and you make money and have a strong return on
investment, that is a very positive development in our
democratic, capitalistic system.
But I find it hard not to inevitably see that whether it is
now or 2 years from now after your pledge to maintain prices as
they are, that down the road, this is a move that will make
more profitable your business because you will have eliminated
a competitor and you will be able to charge more money on
routes for that reason. Many of us feel that way. I am sure
many people out there in America feel that way, that this is
clearly an attempt to eliminate a competitor so that you can
charge more money on routes. Why is that not true?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator Kohl, I would like to go back and add
another responsibility that I think we, as CEO's, have, and
that is to serve our customers, no matter what business we are
in.
Senator Kohl. Sure.
Mr. Goodwin. Yes, we are in this for the economics.
Senator Kohl. Of course.
Mr. Goodwin. But we are in this to serve customers.This
transaction is about serving customers. It is not about eliminating a
competitor. It is about taking a route network today that United
Airlines operates that is an east-west route network that is primarily
concentrated Chicago and west and in the international world and
combining it with an airlines network that is primarily north-south and
concentrated on the East Coast. We believe that is a very complementary
overlap.
Now, are there some routes as a result of this combination
that are going to result in some changes in competition?
Absolutely, and we believe as the Justice Department goes
through their due diligence in this process, as I am sure they
will do on a route-by-route basis, they will identify those
issues that are of concern to them and we will have to figure
out collectively how we work together to try to see if we can
solve those concerns. We believe we can.
But in the end of the day, what we are trying to do here is
enhance competition. We are trying to do that by providing
customers with more choice, and that is clearly what we are
doing here. Customers tell us day in and day out they want to
have access. They want to have access to more places that I
cannot provide them. Customers also tell us day in and day out
that they want to do business with a single carrier, if they
can. It is more convenient. There is one ticket. They do not
have to go change terminals at airport locations, in some cases
change airports. So what we are trying to do is to continue to
refine and build our network so that we can satisfy what our
customers are telling us they want.
Mr. Wolf. Senator Kohl, could I add a point that I think
would be interesting to you, if not the committee and everybody
else?
Senator Kohl. Go ahead, Mr. Wolf.
Mr. Wolf. There is a marketplace in Peoria and there is a
marketplace in Illinois. There is a U.S. marketplace. But in
the end of the end, we are vastly approaching only a global
marketplace. If you look at international passengers per se, US
Airways on an annualized basis has 1.6 international
passengers. United has 11.4 international passengers. Combined,
we have 13 million international passengers. British Airways
has over 30 million, Lufthansa over 27 million, Air France over
24 million, American Airlines over 17 million international
passengers. And we are yet to put our best football team into
the international marketplace, and this, indeed, is going to be
a very competitive football team in the international
marketplace.
Senator Kohl. At a time when air travel is increasing as
rapidly as it is, in other words, your industry is not a
declining industry, it is a very robust industry with huge
growth potential, which is a good thing and I am sure you
anticipate it as a good thing, why would we see it as healthy
to have fewer and fewer companies competing in this industry
which cannot need that because it is a declining industry. Why
would we see that as a good thing?
And after all, you, Chairman DeWine, and the other Senators
have also all pointed out, we never know what deal is coming
down next. In fact, as you know, the other airlines are all
about talking possible deals right now. I would not be
surprised if some of them are talking to put that fear in us so
that we say no to you. That would not surprise me. But why
would we want to start going down that path in an industry with
such huge growth potential that does not have, after all,
dozens and dozens of big-time competitors? Why would we want to
start moving down that path? Yes to you, yes to the next one,
yes to the next one, and maybe three airlines 5 or 10 years
from now.
Mr. Goodwin. Well, Senator, only time will tell if you have
the opportunity to say yes to another one or another one or
another one. But what I think is the underlying issue here is
any carrier, and I think you heard David comment on this a
moment ago, he wants to be able to grow his franchise. He wants
to be able to grow his network. He needs some things to make
that happen.
We want to grow our network. We have a large geographic
area that we have no access to. Our customers are asking for
access. We are trying to provide that to them. Other carriers
may also have a need for greater access to fill out their
network. That may be a path they choose to go down, too. But I
think what you will see happen, Senator, is that competition
will continue to grow because airlines compete across hubs, not
in a hub, across their hubs. They build networks that play to
their strengths.
There are hundreds of examples of cities around the country
that have significant competition because of the multiple air
carriers' operations or hubs. One of the cities I like to talk
about is Des Moines, because it is in a State that has a lot of
small cities, a State that likes to have good access to air
service. Des Moines has service to 10 different hubs. They have
eight airlines serving their city and they have over 50 flights
a day to those connecting complexes.
So there are always going to be opportunities for air
carriers as they start to fill out their networks to tie cities
to their respective hubs and that is how competition will
continue to be fostered in this business, as well as one of the
carriers which we have not talked about, Southwest. Southwest
started as a very small local regional carrier, just as JetBlue
is doing. They now offer today in the United States the same
number of seats that United Airlines does, and we do not talk
about that, but that happens. They have access to over 90
percent of the U.S. population and they are growing at 13 to 15
percent a year, and I am sure that JetBlue is going to be
growing at a faster rate because they have developed a product
that brings value to their customers and they will be bringing
value to the marketplace and they will continue to compete.
Mr. Cooper. Mr. Kohl, let me offer an observation, because
the primary benefit that they keep giving us is access, and if
you ask yourself, why do we not have access, the answer is
simple, because we have this fortress hub system. So people who
say, I want to get to there but I cannot find another airline
to get to there because when I get to their hub, there is
nobody else there. This is Mr. Neeleman's problem. He says, if
I could get access to those hubs, then I could actually compete
for those customers, and if I compete on price, you know what,
for that $400, I think people will change planes. At least,
that is what my members tell me.
So what he is offering you is a solution to a problem that
he has created and will only reinforce that. The point is that
if we want to have competition, we have to have access to
customers and this merger will make that less. Yes, he is going
to give me a flight to Beijing, but thepeople who want to get
from Columbus to Charlotte are paying $500 too much, and Mr. Neeleman
would like to be able to get into Charlotte so that he can compete on
that route, and that is his problem. That is a structural problem that
the industry has created, so I certainly would not let them solve the
problem by making it worse, which is what they propose to do.
The benefit is convenience. I would love to go to Beijing
on a one-stop flight if I live in one of those cities at the
end of his network. But frankly, on a day-to-day basis, the
average consumer is more worried about the $500 differential
that Mr. Edwards presented in such stark terms, and that
problem is created by policy about closing hubs.
Senator Kohl. One last question. Mr. Johnson, you are on
the board, or were on the board of USA.
Mr. Johnson. I am still a board member, yes, sir.
Senator Kohl. Is it not of interest that as a member of the
board of directors--I understand you did not vote on this
merger--but as a member of the board of directors, you now wind
up with a brand new business that has a huge profit potential
or you would not be doing it and it comes to you to some extent
because you are an insider there, you understand everything,
they understand you and whatever they decided or you jointly
decided that you would get out of all this for yourself a shiny
new business with a huge upside. I mean, I think you need to
somehow explain that to those of us who are interested in
protecting, as a member of the board of directors, protecting
only the value of the shareholders that you represent. That is
your fiduciary responsibility.
Mr. Johnson. Yes, Senator. I would be delighted to explain
that to you because I think it is part and parcel of what I
call the way the American system works. For many years, we as
African-Americans have not been in what I call that system of
access to people who can benefit you in terms of opportunities.
I went to Princeton, and because I went to Princeton, I was
referred to a gentleman here in Washington, a guy named Bob
Gray who owned a big Hill and Knowlton public relations firm.
That Princeton connection got me my first job with the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It is called being in the
deal flow.
Now, I was able to get on Stephen Wolf's board because he
respected the fact that I also serve on Hilton Hotel's board,
General Mills' board, and I created a business as a CEO that I
founded, and he recognized that I knew how to create value, I
knew how to focus on shareholder interests, and he knew I had
the first African-American company publicly traded on the New
York Stock Exchange. So I brought benefit to US Air as a
director.
Now, when this opportunity came before me, I was not
seeking this opportunity. When Steve mentioned the merger, the
overlap competition in DC Air, he knew he had to spin it off.
He came to me because I was a businessman who he felt had
enough confidence and enough capital to take on this
opportunity. It was fully disclosed to the board. I did not
participate in any vote on this issue at all, and I think it is
absolutely the way business is done in the United States, where
you get access to individuals who can help you, they present it
to you, it is above board. I am paying full value, my capital.
This is the American way and I am delighted to be a part of it.
Senator Kohl. Thank you.
Senator DeWine. Senator Kohl, thank you very much.
Senator Specter.
Senator Specter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In view of the very limited amount of time that we have on
the questions in the hearing today, I want to start by asking
that a number of questions be answered for the record.
First of all, Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Wolf, I would like to
know what efforts there have been made by other airlines to
come in and compete with your carriers, what happened with
respect to the fares they charged, how you met them, and
whether they were able to provide any effective competition. I
want to test to see what your experience has been, like the
American Airlines which drove a company out of business in
Wichita, at least under the allegations which have been made in
that antitrust litigation.
Mr. Johnson, I would appreciate it if you would provide
information on the capitalization of your company. The
information which I have amounts to your purchasing 222 slots,
leasing 37 planes from United, and no information as to
capitalization. I note that there have been five shareholder
lawsuits filed against US Airways directors on an allocation of
assets to you benefitting at the expense of public shareholders
and another lawsuit has been filed alleging self-dealing. I
would like your response to those and to know what kind of
capital you have, besides leasing these planes preliminarily
from United and how you are going to make a transition from
leases to acquiring jets.
Mr. Goodwin, I would like information from you about what
happened in the sequence of mergers which followed in 1985,
United's acquisition of Pan American World Airways. The
information that I see is that the experts concluded that it
spurred Northwest's subsequent acquisition of Republic, which
created the domination of certain markets, and we have already
talked about a concern here as to the domino effect on the
mergers between American and Delta andContinental and
Northwest. I would like to have your analysis as to what the impact on
the market will be when number one teams up with number six.
Mr. Wolf, you have made a point as to what has happened to
similarly situated airlines, about five of them, Braniff and
TWA and others, on an analogy as to where US Airways stands in
terms of the future of your company, and one of the matters of
enormous concern to Pennsylvania is what would happen to US
Airways if this merger does not occur. So I would like your
analysis as to what has happened to those other companies in
terms of what is posed now as a risk to US Airways.
And included in that I would like the analysis of you, Mr.
Goodwin, as well, as to how Southwest comes into the picture
and how AirTran comes into the picture and how they acquire
slots and gates. As I understand it, there is such a tie-up on
that that the prospect of another competitor is just very, very
slight.
Now, Mr. Goodwin, yesterday, you were asked at the House
hearings whether United, and it is United because you are going
to be the survivor here, would you be willing to sign a consent
decree with the Department of Transportation, perhaps it should
be with the Department of Justice, guaranteeing that whatever
commitments are undertaken here for however long a period of
time, that it would be enforceable. Your response was, you did
not know the answer to that question and nobody asked you the
follow-up question, which is if you do not know, who does. You
are the CEO. Are you prepared today to make a commitment that
the successor company, if a merger is approved, would be
willing to enter into a consent decree so that any commitments
are binding and enforceable?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, I think this may be a little bit of
the same conversation we were having earlier. If you are
referring to the price conversation that we had yesterday,
there was a subsequent follow-on discussion about that subject
and what I have said and what I am willing to commit to is
United Airlines is unequivocally committing to a 2-year price
freeze on those fare types that we have indeed identified. We
believe that it is a fair freeze that will cut across the
entire industry.
Senator Specter. Can you come to my question, please?
Mr. Goodwin. And as a result of that, we are willing to
accept any monitoring process that we can work out with the
Department of Transportation, the Department of Justice, to
ensure that we follow through on our commitment.
Senator Specter. Well, the way to do that would be a
consent decree. You enter into a contract, call it a consent
decree. It is enforceable. Are you willing to do that?
Mr. Goodwin. We are willing to commit to whatever the
government believes they need to have ensure that we follow
through on our commitments.
Senator Specter. Well, I do not want to leave it to the
government, that nebulous entity for the future. I want to know
today if you are prepared to say that you would agree to a
consent decree. That is the way it is done.
Mr. Goodwin. If that is the way it is done and if that is
what we have to do to demonstrate our commitment, we are
willing to commit to what we have committed to. We want to
provide our customers with a 2-year fare freeze and we will
commit to that.
Senator Specter. I am unwilling to accept your statement,
``if that is the way it is done, then we will commit to it.'' I
do not want to get involved in whether that is the way it is
done. I want to know whether you will make a contractual
commitment which is binding in a court of law on whatever
promises you make with respect to fares or anything else.
Mr. Goodwin. I am testifying to that effect today and we
are very serious about that. If the legal language is a consent
decree that we have to commit to in order to satisfy the
requirement, that is what we will commit to.
Senator Specter. Well, I will take that to be a yes, Mr.
Goodwin.
With respect to the business about furloughs, I understand
your policy on that. Would you be willing to commit to
maintaining the same number of jobs so that if people leave by
attrition, that those same number of jobs would be open, say,
in Pennsylvania?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, no, I would not be willing to make
that commitment. I think we have made an unprecedented
commitment to employ all the people that are currently employed
by US Airways and scheduled to work. Technology, et cetera, are
changing every day in the marketplace and to make that
commitment, I could not do so.
Senator Specter. Well, there are changes and it is up to
you, but there are an awful lot of nervous people among the
11,700 employees in Pittsburgh and 5,800 in Philadelphia, and
you are privileged to make whatever arrangements you choose,
obviously. You made quite a big deal over saying that there
would be no furloughs, but that left open the question as to
whether employment opportunities would be maintained.
And while technology does change, the question in my mind
is the fairness of asking you to make a 2-year commitment on
those job opportunities. It is not an unlimited commitment, but
it would provide some additional assurance. And I picked 2
years because that is what you have decided with respect to air
fares. How about it?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, I am not sure exactly what you are
asking for in that 2-year period----
Senator Specter. Exactly what I am asking for----
Mr. Goodwin [continuing]. A cap on employment numbers?
Senator Specter. Exactly what I am asking for is the same
number of jobs which are now available by US Air in
Pennsylvania will be maintained for 2 years.
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, I am not in a position to be able to
make that commitment.
Senator Specter. Fair enough. Your judgment, your business
judgment. I respect that. But that tells us something at the
other end as to what is likely to happen to the 17,000
employees.
I have taken a look at the pricing fares and the way you
established prices, and without being facetious, I do not think
Albert Einstein could understand this. You have 6 months prior
to departure, 48 days before departure, 13 days before
departure, 4 hours before departure, 5 minutes before
departure, overbookings in all the categories, for example, 4
hours before departure the plane is overbooked by 11 passengers
but the computer nonetheless authorizes the sale of three more
coach seats. There is a different standard 5 minutes before
departure.
I am taking a look to see what is the meaningfulness of the
commitment you have made to maintain prices for 2 years. Does
that maintain a commitment that you are not going to change the
number of seats available at the lower fare, because if you
reduce the number of seats at the lower fare, then, in effect,
the prices will go up, although you have not raised the price.
Does it affect the special arrangements that you have, because
if you make changes on the special arrangements, then the
prices would, in effect, go up.
What can be done, Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Wolf, to give the
consuming public some opportunity to understand pricing? Your
fares are not published, is that correct, Mr. Goodwin?
Mr. Goodwin. No, Senator, it is not. Fares are published
widely, both in our system, on the Internet. Consumers have
access to prices.
Senator Specter. Do consumers have a spot where they can
take a look in one document and find out these various costs
for 6 months, 48 days, 13 days, 4 hours before, 5 minutes
before?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, all the Internet bookings systems
that are currently in use have a low-fare shopper feature that
all the consumer has to do is put in the city they are leaving
from, the city they are going to, the day they want to fly, and
it will find the lowest fare for them.
Senator Specter. That does not answer my question, Mr.
Goodwin. I understand that. I understand you can go to the
Internet and you can find out where the cheapest fare is today
to go from point A to point B. But my question to you is
whether somebody can go and get the whole picture.
Mr. Goodwin. Well, the information on the whole picture
only resides in the computer systems, and they can go to those
computer systems and have access, Senator, to all that
information. There is not one spot that I personally know of
that has the thousands or probably millions of fares that are
displayed in those computer systems today.
Senator Specter. Just one more question on the one that was
asked of you yesterday, Mr. Goodwin, and that was the assertion
made by Mr. DeFazio that United has the worst consumer record
and the worst on-time record. First of all, was Congressman
DeFazio correct when he said that at the House hearing
yesterday?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, it depends on what survey or what
criteria you want to measure against. Senator DeFazio----
Senator Specter. Is there any survey which shows that?
Mr. Goodwin. Yes, there is, and then there are comparable
surveys that say that we are rated number one or number two in
the industry. So when we talk about our company, I guess we all
like to pick the one we like the best, but United Airlines'
service ratings by PLOAG, which is a syndicated research
company that measures all the airlines all the time and has
been doing it for the past 20 years, has United rated as number
one for the last 12 months.
Senator Specter. On what?
Mr. Goodwin. On total airline service, all the things that
customers----
Senator Specter. How about just on on time, which ought to
be----
Mr. Goodwin. On time is clearly one of the elements, sir.
Senator Specter [continuing]. A little easier to gauge. For
31 elements here, you have got an Einstein problem. How about
on time? Was Congressman DeFazio correct that United has the
worst on-time record of any carrier in the country?
Mr. Goodwin. The last 12 months, United Airlines'
performance on on time is we are ranked seventh, not last. His
comment yesterday, sir, related to the 13-year period from 1987
to the year 2000.
Senator Specter. OK, very last question. If you are ranked
seventh at the present time, which is not too good, are you
going to be any better if you acquire US Airways and have still
a bigger system to administer?
Mr. Goodwin. Absolutely.
Senator Specter. Thank you.
Senator DeWine. Senator Leahy.
Senator Leahy. Mr. Goodwin, if it is any consolation,
Members of Congress also get rated by a lot of different
organizations. We tend to, when we run our reelection ads, we
do not put all the ratings in those ads, either. This probably
comes as a shock to you, but it is true. But we usually end up
finding--whoever runs against us finds the other ratings and
they publish them.
I would also say on the question of consent decree in the
form of a contract, like all contracts, you cannot enter into a
contract unilaterally. I would assume that your answer would
include the fact that if you are going to have such a consent
decree, whoever is in the government has to agree to the other
side of it or you cannot enter into such a contract, is that
true?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, that was the point I was trying to
make, that whatever we have to do to satisfy the Department of
Justice requirements, we will do that.
Senator Leahy. I am thinking of Doc Yeager, one of my
professors in Contracts 101 at Georgetown, God rest his soul.
He was a very colorful man, but I do recall we needed more than
one person in a contract.
Now, Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Wolf, I think your respective
boards of directors are probably praising the heck out of you.
They should. You have entered into an agreement. It is on
paper. It is a logical fit for both companies. United flies
primarily east-west. US Airways is a dominant north-south
carrier on the East Coast. If you spin off DC Air or whatever
it may end up being called, then you address the United
domination of the Washington, DC market.
But, having said all these things complimentarily, and I
mean them that way, I think you are going to have market share
problems in many other communities. US Airways was a dominant
carrier in many communities on the East Coast. If you merge
with United, it is going to strengthen that grip even more. It
is the places with the end-point destinations that bother me.
If there is consolidation of carriers, I do not see how that
brings down these high air fares.
You talked about holding air fares in place for 2 years.
That does not help us when we think the air fare is too high
already. I have used this chart. I know these prices because I
fly my family back and forth all the time. I find it a lot
easier when they say, Dad, let us go to California or Ireland
or visit our relatives in Italy or whatever else we do than
going back and forth here. It is going to cost the old man a
little bit less.
How do you take care of those end-point areas? Frankly, I
do not see that if these prices are this high with some
competition, how could they possibly come down with even less
competition?
Mr. Wolf. Can I comment on the----
Senator Leahy. And I have enormous respect for both your
airlines. I said before, they fly into Burlington. Your people
there are among the most professional I have ever met. As I fly
around the country, US Airways and United, the people I deal
with in your other hubs and areas are extraordinarily
professional and helpful people. That is not the issue. It is
the issue whether a family can go somewhere without taking out
a second mortgage.
Mr. Wolf, you were trying to say something.
Mr. Wolf. Let me try to comment on the round-trip
Washington, DC, from Burlington. I am assuming these numbers
are all absolutely correct. My guess is the $735 round-trip
fare is the walk-up, most expensive----
Senator Leahy. No, 7 days.
Mr. Wolf. Seven-day advance for the $735? And the $419 fare
to London is certainly the largest advance purchase possible--
--
Senator Leahy. Seven days.
Mr. Wolf. Seven days also?
Senator Leahy. Yes; we took these all at 7 days.
Incidentally, on an earlier question you were asked, and I will
help you a little bit on this, Mr. Goodwin, and I will go back
to you, Mr. Wolf, you were asked about these Einsteinian
charts. The Internet really has changed that, and I think in
fairness to you I should say so. I know that my kids on their
last trip from the West Coast they put in to PriceLine or
Travelocity, one of those, a fare, date, and came back and they
said no. They put back in the amount again they wanted, and
after 15 minutes, they got it. This is something we never had
before. I am not doing that as an ad for any of these
companies, but I know we find that is very helpful.
I am sorry, Mr. Wolf. Go ahead.
Mr. Wolf. Let me go back to it again and try to take a shot
at it. Let me start by saying, which I do not say with any
particular pleasure, that US Airways has the highest unit costs
in the industry. We have the highest unit costs in the industry
primarily for two reasons. One is our average stage link and
the average aircraft size, a small airplane and a small stage
link which drives high unit costs. And two, because we are only
about half the size of the major carriers and we cannot spread
our fixed costs over a larger base, which is one of the driving
forces for the transaction we are proposing.
I would guess that unit costs between Burlington and
Washington are 5, 6, conceivably 7 times what they are in that
transatlantic flight. The load factor in the transatlantic
flight at that fare level is probably 100 percent, and our load
factor in Burlington is maybe 60.
Mr. Chairman, if I could, I would like to go back to the
fortress hub thing for just a second because fortress hubs have
this flavor of bad, and I am particularly happy that Senator
Schumer is back in the room. There are 23----
Senator Leahy. I just want to add a note on this, Mr. Wolf.
I recall when there has been competition. Prices still did not
come down. I mean, it may drive the airline, a regional
carrier, anything else, to really determine what they will use
for equipment. I take flights on both of your companies all the
time. They are usually full. A lot of times, I cannot even get
on because they are already full. A larger plane which would
cost you a lot less if it was available would allow them to
bring down the cost of that ticket, but also there would be
people there. But I remember when the old Peoples Express was
flying in and out of Burlington, we had busloads coming down
from Montreal. We had a lot of others that came there to fly
it, and while it was going on, prices of everybody came down.
But anyway, go ahead.
Mr. Wolf. Well, the larger aircraft would, in fact, would
be substantially more expensive to operate, but it would
generate lower unit costs.
But in any event, if I could go to the hub thing for just a
second, there are 23 hub cities in the United States of
America, and because of the economic advantage of being a hub
city, I suspect every other city in the United States of
America would like to be a hub city. Hubs compete with hubs,
which is a little more difficult for us to understand. We all
understand airlines competing with airlines, but hubs compete
with hubs, and let me use an example for just a second, and I
am particularly pleased that Senator Schumer is here.
We fly from Buffalo to Pittsburgh 4 times a day with full-
size jet aircraft. There are 24 passengers a day that fly
between Buffalo and Pittsburgh. On average, we have six of them
per flight. Now, because we run a hub in Pittsburgh, which, by
the way, obviously we would never fly any times per day from
Buffalo to Pittsburgh with 24 passengers in total in the
marketplace, but because we have a hub in Pittsburgh, we are
able to say to our sales arm in Buffalo, you not only can sell
a seat to Pittsburgh, you can sell a seat as a result of the
connecting complex in Pittsburgh to the beyond 35 additional
destinations, and the sum of that is we generate a load factor
of about 67 percent and it becomes a sort of a profitable thing
for us to do.
But if you look at Buffalo and you look at our operation,
if you are in Buffalo, you can connect, if you want to go to a
beyond point--pick the West Coast, where you cannot fly nonstop
from Buffalo to the West Coast--you can fly over Atlanta 3
times a day from Buffalo to connect to Los Angeles, or
Charlotte 3 times a day on us, or O'Hare 10 times a day on
American or United, or Cincinnati 3 times a day on Delta, or
Cleveland 6 times a day on Continental, or Dallas once a day on
America, or Northwest 6 times a day out of Detroit. Hubs
vigorously compete with hubs, and as a result of that, these
communities get more service than they would otherwise get. The
hub city gets phenomenally more than it can justify on an O and
D basis because of the size of its local market, and the feed
cities get more than they would get otherwise.
As a result, frankly, what is going on in the industry with
this strong desire for low-cost, low-fare carriers to come in,
perfectly understandable by me as an American consumer, and I
understand perfectly what they do to mature-cost airlines in
terms of monitoring their fare levels, because they have
dramatically lower costs and thus lower fares and that is
certainly what the American consumer wants, we have to match
the fare. Whether we lose money or not, we have to match the
fare, because the option is if we do not match the fare, no one
is going to fly on us and we are going to have to withdraw from
the marketplace.
So I think there is an immense amount of competition in
this industry today and I think it is going to continue. I
think JetBlue is going to do exceedingly well and continue to
grow, and among other things, cause all of us to watch our
fares because we do not have his costs but we have got to match
their fare level.
Senator Leahy. Could I close with this, Mr. Chairman. I am
going to submit a number of questions, and I realize this is a
complex area and at some point I would like to talk at further
length----
Mr. Wolf. I would like to do that.
Senator Leahy [continuing]. With you, Mr. Goodwin, and you,
Mr. Wolf, and you, Mr. Johnson, about this, but Mr. Neeleman,
let me just say, if I might, Mr. Chairman, one more question,
Vermonters are excited about the jet service to Burlington. I
have seen diagrams of these planes----
Senator Schumer. I have been on them, Mr. Chairman. They
are very nice.
Senator Leahy. Actually, they are the kind of plane you
wish the flight lasted a little bit longer on, unlike many
times where we are all so busy and we do not want it to last
any longer, even on the nicest of airplanes. And I understand
your service to Buffalo--that is in New York, upstate.
[Laughter.]
Senator Schumer. I have been there.
Senator Leahy [continuing]. And to Florida is working out
extremely well. Now, Vermont is a high-priced destination, so a
low-fare service is very welcome. You said that youare
concerned that JetBlue is going to be shut out of National Airport
because of slotting problems, but there are two other airports in the
DC area. In fact, a couple of those fares are out of BWI, and we have
got Dulles. Why is it a problem if you get shut out of National?
Mr. Neeleman. I think if you look at consistently,
Washington National is the airport that people want to go to in
the Washington area. It is the airport that traditionally has--
you cannot buy slots in there, and we made an inquiry as to
leasing slots and it was so expensive that obviously we could
not make it work. Obviously, the market dictates and those
slots obviously were created for the taxpayer and were created
by the Federal Government and given out and we would like to
have the opportunity to be able to, thanks to Senator Schumer
and efforts of many, we were able to have access to Kennedy
Airport, and from there we have been offering $49 to $99 fares
to upstate New York and have increased service from three
flights a day to Buffalo to five flights a day. There are
thousands and thousands of people now that are traveling where
they could not have traveled before. All we want is access and
we want to be able to fly into a market.
To Mr. Wolf's comment, I understand we cannot be all things
to all people. We will never fly to Paris out of Charlotte or
anywhere else. There needs to be a national system that needs
to be created for a maximum amount of efficiency. You may be
happy when you fly from Buffalo to New York on us for $49, but
what happens 1 day when you want to fly to Spokane, WA? You
have to have a national network.
I am saying, OK, it makes sense, all the things they say,
but we need to have, then, if we are going to put so much power
in such few hands going forward, then let us enact some way
that we can make sure that competition on a regional basis,
like what we have been able to do in the State of New York and
we will do in the State of Vermont, can continue, where they
cannot take this power and lay it on top of you, and there have
been many cases of that, to put you out of business just to
return to status quo.
I think, too, Southwest has been able to coexist and they
have flourished. They make hundreds of millions of dollars a
year. If we were making that now, we would not be so concerned
about making sure there were competitive guidelines. We hope to
get to that place someday, and I am sure we will.
But there are points on both sides. There is the good and
there is the bad, and I think there is a way to take this
opportunity to take the good with the bad and make it better
for the American consumer than it has been heretofore or will
be in the future if there is something that is not done.
Senator Leahy. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for holding
this hearing. I think it is extremely valuable.
Senator DeWine. Thank you, Senator Leahy.
Senator Schumer.
Senator Schumer. Thank you, and I thank you, Mr. Chairman,
for your patience and courtesy which you always extend. I am
going to try to make it quick because I am in here at the end,
but I have two questions that I would like to ask each of the
four panelists, and I will ask them once and let them answer
seriatim, and then I have one final question for Mr. Neeleman.
First, how is this merger, given that we have not gotten
good service in upstate New York--I met Mr. Wolf a while ago
and complained about the service and he explained to me his
high costs and I said, well, I am going to have to try to bring
in competition. He said, well, that is probably what you should
do.
Mr. Wolf. That is absolutely correct.
Senator Schumer. I respected his honesty, and I did. So the
question is, what will this merger as constituted by you folks
do for upstate New York better than what is done now?
And second, given the high cost structure, why is it not in
my constituents' interests to take these beautiful 212 slots,
or whatever it is--did I get the right number?
Mr. Wolf. Two-twenty-two.
Mr. Johnson. Two-twenty-two.
Senator Schumer. Two-twenty-two, which are gold, andgive
them to a low-cost airline, because it seems to me I do not see, given
the arrangement that you folks have made, that the new airline is going
to do much better than the old airline, and worse, in a sense, that if
they do not do well, it may be because they do not have the long-term
tradition and obligations that US Air had, they will just change. They
will say, we should not be a Northeast airline. We should be something
else. Or we could take our slots and give them to the market.
And so I guess my second question is, are people willing to
commit that they will serve upstate New York? I do not mean a
verbal commitment, I mean we work out with Antitrust and the
Department of Transportation that these slots, which I think
many people are having doubts about in terms of how the system
works, are tied to geography as opposed to tied to a carrier.
Mr. Goodwin, you may go first.
Mr. Goodwin. I will speak to your question of upstate New
York. Upstate New York is a very important market to not only
your constituents but my constituents.
Senator Schumer. The seventh largest State in America, it
would be, without any of New York City or the suburbs.
Mr. Goodwin. We have had a long-term relationship of
serving upstate New York, principally over our hub in Chicago,
and most recently with some flights down to Dulles as we have
expanded across the North Atlantic. It is our intent as part of
this transaction to continue to provide all the service that we
have been providing to upstate New York and providing the
service that will come as part of this transaction to the hubs
of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Senator Schumer. Do you think the cost would get any lower?
Mr. Goodwin. I believe that US Airways has a unique problem
with their cost structure because of their size and their
complexity. We have a much larger route network. We are clearly
going to be able to take their infrastructure costs and spread
them over a much larger base. That, in my estimation, is going
to lower costs.
Senator Schumer. Now, that would not be true of DC Air?
They will not have the larger base and they will still have
high costs.
Mr. Goodwin. No, but Senator, they also do not have 75
years of history of being an old economy air carrier. They are
starting from scratch, just like JetBlue has. You have
different work rules. You have different employment contracts.
You have different process that we, unfortunately, cannot go
back and reinvent the wheel. That is why a Southwest and a
JetBlue and a Frontier and an AirTran and an ATA and all those
carriers can be successful in the market, because they are not
tied to the old patterns that we are.
So upstate New York, in my estimation, is going to benefit
significantly from this transaction because they are going to
have more access. They are going to have one carrier. They are
going to have online capability to basically the global
markets. And we are very, very hopeful that if we are as
successful as we think we are, we are hopeful that we are going
to be able to bring more service to upstate New York from some
of our other hubs.
Senator Schumer. Mr. Wolf.
Mr. Wolf. Senator Schumer, as you and I have talked in the
past, US Airways' Achilles heel, much to my embarrassment but
factually, is that we are the highest unit cost carrier in the
country. We have not done what the other five carriers who were
mid-sized mature-cost carriers at the beginning of
deregulation, we were not Eastern, Braniff, or Pan American and
going out of business. We were not Continental or Delta who
have gone through bankruptcy twice. We are the sole remaining
mature-cost carrier of mid-size, and clearly it is an issue of
significance to us and has some portent about our long-term
viability.
Having said that, when this merger is consummated, our unit
costs are going to come down dramatically because we are going
to be in a much, much larger base. It is just the way the
system works. If I could double the size of my own airline
today, our unit costs would come down absolutely dramatically,
and that is what will happen when we merge with United
Airlines.
Senator Schumer. Why would the price be lower? Let us leave
out DC for the moment, which is a new entity. Why would the
price be lowered if there is less competition rather than more?
You are a businessman.
Mr. Wolf. I do not agree there is going to be less
competition. I think there is going to be more vigorous
competition as a result of doing this than less competition.
Senator Schumer. How so? You have two airlines and now you
have one.
Mr. Wolf. On those routes, on those limited number of
routes where we go from one to two, it is a real issue. It is a
Justice Department issue. It is an issue for you. It is one
that we are going to deal with as aggressively as we can. But
other than a point-to-point service, if you are in Buffalo and
you are flying to the hundreds and thousands of cities in the
United States of America----
Senator Schumer. Take Chicago.
Mr. Wolf. To Chicago, you can fly on American or United
Airlines. But if you go beyond Chicago, you can fly over
Chicago in those two carriers or over Cleveland or over
Cincinnati on all different airlines and we are all competing
for that beyond passenger. So competition isgoing to stay as it
is and we think it is going to become even more aggressive.
Senator Schumer. It has not worked very well. Admittedly,
it has worked the worst in the slotted airports, the two New
York City, National and O'Hare. But it has not done us much
good up to now.
Mr. Wolf. Well, I am not sure I would agree. I mean, the
GAO Office says that fares of airlines today are some 36 to 40
percent less on a real dollar basis----
Senator Schumer. I mean, for upstate New York, it has not.
Mr. Wolf. The discount fares are still very attractive, but
if this happens, I am sad to say, you are going to lose the
highest-cost carrier in the country and you are going to get a
much bigger carrier with a much broader system and with all the
economic advantage of going to all those points online, which
is what Kodak will tell you they want, at a lower cost
structure.
Senator Schumer. And let me ask you one other question.
Mr. Wolf. I want to answer the second one, also.
Senator Schumer. Go ahead.
Mr. Wolf. The second one is, why should we give these slots
to this airline versus a low-cost carrier. There is some
misconception about ``this airline.'' This is a new airline,
just like JetBlue, with new employees. They are not taking one
US Airways employee, unless they hire a member of management
who goes there willingly. He is going to hire his own employees
and acquire his own aircraft and he is going to be a low-cost
carrier starting up. And, too, he is going to be able to
provide much more competitive fares than anything that we can
provide today.
The last thing on that particular point is----
Senator Schumer. How can he get--well, I will ask Mr.
Johnson this.
Mr. Wolf. He is a JetBlue start-up airline with, at this
point in time, an acting president. He is going to hire a
president. He is going to hire a chief pilot. He is going to
hire pilots. He is going to go through the same thing that
JetBlue has gone through. But what he has to do, which is
somewhat awkward and unusual, the day after the merger is
consummated, he has got to serve these 43 cities and he has got
to do temporary things to get aircraft to operate with until he
can get his own fleet and his own employees, and he cannot do
that in advance because we are talking about hundreds of
millions of dollars in commitment to airplanes and he does not
even know if he is going to have an airline. So it is only an
interim situation.
Senator Schumer. Yes, but at the beginning, to keep the
service going, he is going to basically take over your
structure and call it a different name.
Mr. Wolf. No, he is not. No, he is not. He is going to do
one of a couple of things. We are going to move a significant
number of regional jets that we have exclusive contracts with
today, US Airways, and move those into National Airport to
serve routes that we are flying with our own aircraft today at
a much, much higher cost.
Senator Schumer. Give those to him.
Mr. Wolf. Well, I am not giving them to him. He is going to
do this himself. He is going to acquire, own, eight turbo prop
aircrafts, although he is going to become an all-jet fleet as
quickly as he can, and he is going to lease from United some
limited number of 737-200's with crews to operate these routes
at an arm's length negotiation until he can get his own
airplanes. He does not have the luxury of doing what JetBlue is
doing, which is starting up with one, two, three air frames and
growing that way because he has got to serve the marketplace
day one. But he will get there as quickly as he can. But he is
a low-cost, new airline start-up carrier.
In the alterative----
Senator Schumer. Why, if you could not do it, can he do it?
You could have started from scratch, so to speak.
Mr. Wolf. No, I could not.
Senator Schumer. You could have gotten new planes. You
could have looked for new employees.
Mr. Wolf. No, sir, we could not do that. We are certainly
doing a good job of buying new aircraft, and we are going to
take 58 new large jets this year. But I cannot abrogate my
union contracts. I mean, I have a scope clause that says if I
buy an airplane and we own an airplane, it is going to be flown
by our pilots, and it is common in the industry. He is going to
go out and hire his own pilots. He is going to start up just
like JetBlue, and I cannot do that. I cannot do it with a
subsidiary or any other way possible.
Too, we did look at selling the slots off piecemeal, two
here, six there, 12 there.
Senator Schumer. Right.
Mr. Wolf. We probably could have gotten more money for
them----
Senator Schumer. No, I do not want to see them sold,
because they could go----
Mr. Wolf. Well, if we would give them away----
Senator Schumer. What do you think of the idea of tying
slots geographically?
Mr. Wolf. Frankly, I have never thought about it, but I can
tell you this, that US Airways has served a number of these
small communities for 50 years or more, and we could certainly
use those slots to larger geographic centers wherethere is more
revenue, and Bob Johnson is committing to doing the same thing.
Senator Schumer. OK. We will need more than a verbal
commitment.
Mr. Wolf. I think I interrupted you a minute ago.
Senator Schumer. No, no, no, that is fair.
Go ahead, Mr. Johnson, the same questions.
Mr. Johnson. I think I am going to echo in what I am saying
a lot of exactly what Mr. Wolf said. In what we will do for
service in upstate New York, the service is going to be better
than it has been before because, for example, right now you get
three jets in Buffalo, three jets in Albany, three jets in
Rochester, three jets in Syracuse. You continue to get that
same level of service, but in our case you have an airline that
is totally focused only on serving the 43 cities of which the
four that I am talking about are your cities.
Senator Schumer. Binghamton, too. Binghamton, you serve.
Mr. Johnson. OK. We also serve White Plains, as well.
Senator Schumer. That is not on your list.
Mr. Johnson. DC Air is not in Binghamton.
Senator Schumer. Not in Binghamton, because you do not go
from Binghamton--US Air does not go now from D.C. to--they just
go to Pittsburgh. All right. OK.
Mr. Johnson. So you are going to have a focused airline. It
is not going to be tied to the mature costs that Stephen Wolf
mentioned. So we can focus on productivity, we can focus on
marketing, we can focus on providing a service that is directly
related to the communities that we serve. We are not looking to
go across the Atlantic. We are not looking to build up hub
sites anyplace else. We are only focusing on those 43 cities.
Now the question you asked, why should you give these
valuable slots to a low-cost carrier? First of all, they were
not given to me. They were sold to me, just as slots have been
sold historically throughout the airline industry or leased
throughout the airline industry. This is not a give away.
Senator Schumer. They were sold in a----
Mr. Johnson. They were sold.
Senator Schumer. Not in a competitive bidding situation, I
presume.
Mr. Johnson. And as far as I know, historically, they are
not sold in a competitive bidding situations.
Senator Schumer. No, that is one of the problems.
Mr. Johnson. Well, I know, but I am only coming to the
opportunity as it is presented, and so I did exactly what every
other airline has done and so on.
Senator Schumer. Right. You realize that is not a great
argument for upstate New York.
Mr. Johnson. Well, I think David got--his slots were sort
of given to him. I do not think he competitive bid for them.
Senator Schumer. No, but they were tied geographically.
Mr. Johnson. And we are tied in a way geographically for 50
years of history and I see no reason to change that history in
terms of serving these 43 cities.
Now, the question is, why should you give it to a low-cost
carrier? My argument is, we will be a low-cost carrier because
of some of the things that I mentioned before--focused airline,
rationalized fleet, market commitment to serve just these 43
cities.
For example, if you look at the DC Air routes now, the
total revenue, if you take the total revenue, divide it by the
three million passengers, the average cost of a point A to a
point B flight on DC Air is about $125. Now, that is the kind
of competitive route structure they have now. I think once we
get a hold of it, and as I said, focused on cost, focused on
service, those costs are going to be much more competitive.
Now, will we commit to serve upstate New York? Senator----
Senator Schumer. Let us put it like this. How will you
commit beyond a verbal commitment?
Mr. Johnson. I think we will be more than willing to sit
down and talk with the people at DOT, the people at Justice
about how they might ask us to address that issue. But I think
if you look at what the airline has done in the past, that has
been its route structure. It has been a valuable route
structure. It would be certainly no way in my interest to try
to tamper with that very attractive route structure, and part
of that route structure are the cities that we mentioned in
upstate New York. But I will be more than glad to sit down with
the officials at DOT and Justice to address that issue.
Senator Schumer. OK, thank you. Now, I would just like Mr.
Neeleman and Mr. Cooper to, in whatever way you see
appropriate, either agree with or rebut what has been said by
Messrs. Goodman, Wolf, and Johnson.
And just one other question to Mr. Neeleman, which is you
have done a great job. I mean, I am not wedded to JetBlue. I am
wedded to good service for upstate New York and you are the
first one to really provide. But you have a real constraint,
which is number of jets. How are you going to be able--let us
say somehow or other you have had a chance to get a bunch of
those slots and fly to the cities you are flying to from
National. How would you be able toserve them given that you
have a constraint on the number of planes you have? So answer whatever
you want to say in reference to these three guys and then that
question.
Mr. Neeleman. OK, great. Let me answer the last one first.
You know, one of the reasons that I think and I know that
JetBlue will be successful is that we have a plan and we are
going to stick to it. As much as this area of the country would
be nice and I would love to have been in Mr. Johnson's spot to
get these, we are committed to New York. We are a New York-
based airline. We have committed to you and we have committed
to everyone that we are going to utilize the slots that we have
in Kennedy Airport.
We could not use more than maybe 10 of those slots to
provide service between here and New York City, which would in
turn provide service to upstate New York. There are other
airlines that are lining up saying, we want them all. We will
divert all of our planes in here. No, we are not here in a
self-serving way to do that, and I frankly have been
enlightened today by the fact that Mr. Johnson is not something
that is going to be attached to United Airlines, that he is
going to go out on his own. We have a lot of expertise. I was
just sitting here thinking, maybe we should trade in some of
our expertise for some of his slots. We could do a quick trade
here.
Senator Schumer. As long as you fly to New York State, I
might support that.
Mr. Neeleman. Well, you know they will be.
Mr. Johnson. And Dayton and Columbus, right?
Mr. Neeleman. And Dayton and Columbus.
Senator Schumer. Well, that is for the other guys to do
their thing.
Mr. Neeleman. But we are committed to New York. We told you
that. We are, and we are not here to try and grab all the slots
or probably not any of them, for that matter. But we would like
to serve the Washington, DC area. If we cannot get into
Washington National Airport, eventually we will be at Dulles
and bringing those low fares. We will not be able to provide
all the things that United Airlines can provide, but we will do
and we will create our passengers that are not currently
traveling today.
Senator Schumer. And what is your judgment on the ability
of Mr. Johnson, not Mr. Johnson per se, who is a fine,
accomplished, intelligent man, but of a company starting the
way it is to be a low-cost carrier, forgetting about where they
fly and all of that?
Mr. Neeleman. You know, I think, obviously, in the initial
stages, there is a policy that is a ``use it or lose it''
policy. This is a very creative thing, because if the slots
were handed to him on a piece of paper overnight, he would lose
them all.
So there needed to be a commercial arrangement where these
planes would be leased and be flown by a regional carrier,
probably not by United's pilots but one of their regional
carriers to fly these, and this is the reason where hopefully
temporarily the seats from Buffalo will contract, and hopefully
Mr. Johnson, having these assets and these slots, you can
really make a case the same way we did in Kennedy to build an
airline in here with really low costs, and hopefully his
concept will be similar to what ours is. Instead of trying to
grab the $800 fare, which has been the case here, let us do a
more rational $200 fare or $300 fare, from $99 to $300 and
create a whole lot of new business and fly bigger jets on it.
If this happens, we are all kind of in this war together,
but we all have similar challenges and wish him all the luck
because it is a tough business. Like I said, the way it is
structured, if it is totally not tied to United and if there
are restrictions that he has to fly to certain places, he can
make it work. And if his costs are lower, which ours are,
significantly lower, and we can show him how to do that and we
would be happy to talk to him about it, then he can make a
success about it.
Senator Schumer. Thank you. Just before I get to Mr.
Cooper, who I see is sitting apart from the other capitalists--
--
Mr. Cooper. Plus Mr. Kahn here.
Senator Schumer. OK.
Mr. Cooper. He was the buffer, see.
Senator Schumer. But Mr. Johnson, just to clarify
something, there is no agreement and will be no agreement that
if you do not use a slot, the slot goes back to United, reverts
to United?
Mr. Johnson. Senator, there is no agreement. There will be
no agreement. I am acquiring all the slots and will operate the
slots to the 43 cities that we serve.
Senator Schumer. If that was asked already, I apologize,
but I thought it had to be.
OK, Mr. Cooper, you get the last word.
Mr. Cooper. Mr. Schumer, your defense of upstate New York
is magnificent, but frankly, as I listened to this discussion
all morning, we have heard Mr. Neeleman talk about rules on
predation and access to hubs. We heard Mr. Specter talk about
his facilities. We have heard the company commit to price
regulation for 2 years and maybe antitrust. Two to one, I think
we would have to do three to two and four to three. On any one
of those routes, you lose that competitor, you have lost
something. If we go back, actually, we should look at six to
five and five to four, but let us start at four to three,
because almost nobody has more than four.
What we have got here is we are re-regulating the airline
industry, and frankly, if I walked in here and said, you know
what, we ought to re-regulate the airline industry, you guys
would have said, you are nuts. This is one of those liberal
consumer groups who wants to impose regulation.
So my answer is simple. Do not cobble together the re-
regulation of the airline industry to defend your interests,
which I am sympathetic with, or yours or Illinois or
Pennsylvania. Let us vote for competition. This man represents
real competition, and let us make sure----
Senator Schumer. Which man are you pointing to?
Mr. Cooper. This man right here, Mr. Neeleman. He has
brought low prices, and occasionally, we have heard the
history, we do occasionally get a low-price airline, but they
frequently get run out of the market, and we have got a court
case about that, and maybe we need regulation. Maybe we need
legislation.
But I would urge you, as you have frequently urged me in a
number of other industries, not to try and cobble together an
industrial policy on the back of these mergers through consent
decrees. You hate that for most industries. And so the answer
is that, from our point of view, to not let this merger go
forward and maybe look at the way we can introduce competition
across the board, because you are going to have a chance if
this one goes forward to do the same thing as a consent decree
on the next one, and they will tell you, ``I cannot predict
history.'' The answer is that we know they are coming, just
like they did in telecommunications and cable TV, et cetera.
And so from our point of view, public policy ought to be
set. I will give you the list of things that you should
accomplish and tell Justice to put on the back end of that
consent decree, and I guarantee you Mr. Goodwin is not going to
want to sign that consent decree, which answers all these
problems.
The answer is, say no to the merger, continue to press the
industry to compete, and maybe we need to come back and ask
this question about hubs, because Mr. Wolf equates the
concentration of traffic at hubs with the ownership of traffic,
and that is not necessarily the way the industry has to be
organized. They want to own the customers through their
airports so they can control them. It did not have to work that
way. There are other industries that allow access and
concentrate traffic without that ownership. Maybe that is the
legislation we should be looking at.
But as a matter of principle, we ought not try and cobble
together this remarkable set of conditions. To preserve your
options in New York, and it is not only the two to ones, it is
the three to twos and four to threes, we should say no to this
merger and insist that we open the industry up down Mr.
Neeleman's path of real competition rather than jury-rigging
some substitute while we create national airlines.
Senator Schumer. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator DeWine. Mr. Goodwin, some cities such as Akron
currently enjoy nonstop service to competing hub airports such
as Washington-Dulles, United's hub, and Pittsburgh, US
Airways's hub. Now that these will no longer be competing hubs,
will cities such as Akron continue to have nonstop service to
both cities or will the merged United/US Air cut nonstop
service to either Washington-Dulles or Pittsburgh?
Mr. Goodwin. Senator, I do not have in front of me what we
are planning in Akron, but I would be more than happy to get it
to you by first thing tomorrow morning, if you would permit me
to do that.
Senator DeWine. That would be great. Let me ask you another
question. Your answer may be the same. There are at least two
routes from Ohio cities Columbus and Dayton to Washington-
Dulles where United and US Airways are the only carriers
currently offering nonstop service. If the merger is permitted
to go through, basically, these communities would lose all
competition on these routes. Why should passengers in Dayton
and Columbus not be concerned about that?
Mr. Goodwin. Again, not having the specific flight schedule
in front of me, but I will be happy to get those to you and we
will be happy to address that question, sir.
Senator DeWine. All right. Let me give you the final one
that you can get back to us. I guess this is more directed to
Mr. Wolf. There are several Ohio markets where US Airways
Express, in joint relationship with other smaller carriers,
provides the only nonstop service on certain routes. For
example, in Columbus, US Airways Express partners with small
carriers to provide nonstop service to communities such as
Grand Rapids, MI, and Indianapolis, IN. What will happen to
routes like this after the merger?
Mr. Wolf. Mr. Chairman, we have some almost 5,000 flights a
day and serve over 200 cities. My assumption is that we do that
for an economic reason today, not philanthropic----
Senator DeWine. We assume.
Mr. Wolf [continuing]. And I would like to think that we
would have the sense to continue doing that tomorrow.
Senator DeWine. Let me thank all of our witnesses here
today. We have had a very distinguished panel of witnesses. You
all have been very patient with us. We appreciate this very
much.
I must say that I am still concerned that this merger will
lead to other mergers in the aviation industry, and frankly, I
did not hear anyone, any of the six witnesses, who could tell
me, ``No, Senator DeWine, that is just crazy,'' or, ``That is
not going to happen.'' So I happen to think it will happen, and
I think your silence on the issue and your inability to say
that this is probably not going to happen clearly indicates to
us this is what is going to happen.
So I think when Justice looks at this and we look at this
as far as public policy, we have to assume this is the first of
two, three mergers and I think we can pretty well project what
U.S. airlines are going to look like, the domestic industry,
and I think we are going to be down to three major players. I
think we have to look at that and I think we have to be
concerned about that.
This subcommittee will continue to monitor the progress of
this merger and the impact it has on competition in the airline
industry. This is an industry obviously very critical to the
U.S. economy and this merger is of great importance to
consumers.
So again, we appreciate all of you being here. You have
shed a lot of light, I think, on the issue and we appreciate it
very much and the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:27 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
----------
Questions and Answers
Responses of James E. Goodwin to Questions From Senator DeWine
Question 1. In the past five years, has your airline included new
entrant carriers in your frequent flyer programs? If not, why not? Will
United's frequent flyer arrangement with DC Air be exclusive, or will
other small airlines be allowed to participate? Will DC Air be
permitted to participate in other airlines' frequent flyer program
Answer. In the past five years, United has not added any new
entrant carriers to our frequent flyer program. Unfortunately, no new
entrant carrier has met our criterion of complementing our network in a
way that creates attractive new redemption opportunities for Mileage
Plus members. Should a new entrant carrier meet such criterion, we
would consider them for participation in our program.
With respect to our frequent flyer relationship with DC Air, there
is no exclusivity with DC Air.
Question 2. Mr. Goodwin, in your written testimony you state that
the merger is not anticompetitive, in part, because new low cost
carriers will provide sufficient competition. Given that, would you
agree with those who argue that low cost carriers should be given
greater access to slot controlled and gate constrained airports? If so,
how should this be accomplished?
Answer. Low-cost carriers such as Southwest, Air Tran, JetBlue,
Frontier and others have been growing aggressively and expanding
competitive entry in numerous markets. The recently enacted FAA
Reauthorization law contains a number of provisions that will further
improve and accelerate the competitive entry of low-cost-carriers. With
respect to slots, the new law phases out slot controls at Chicago
O'Hare, New York LaGuardia and New York Kennedy. During the phase-out
period, the new law immediately provides new access for low-cost
carriers that do not presently offer more than 10 daily rountrip
flights to these airports or are seeking to serve small communities.
United favored immediate elimination of slot controls but Congress
instead decided to phase-out these restrictions. We believe the phase-
out of artificial slot constraints will make competition at O'Hare,
LaGuardia and Kennedy even more vigorous than it is today.
Similarly, the new FAA Reauthorization law addressed concerns about
gate access. The new law requires 40 airports--hubs where one or two
carriers control more than 50 percent of the passenger boardings--to
file competition plans if they seek higher PFCs, new PFCs or new
Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants. We understands this provision
is intended to give airports an incentive to develop and implement
plans to promote competition and capacity enhancement, including
expanding gate access.
Question 3. Some cities, such as Akron, Ohio, currently enjoy
nonstop service to competing hubs such as Dulles and Pittsburgh. Now
that these will no longer be competing hubs, will cities such as Akron
continue to have nonstop service to both cities.
Answer. We have committed to maintain all existing routes into
Akron and after the merger. We will continue to provide such service
from Akron to both Dulles and Pittsburgh. Our Akron service will
continue to compete with service offered by other carriers. Every city
that is served from both of these hubs today will continue to receive
service to both of them after the merger. We will not be able to
achieve the revenue benefits that we project without being able to
offer the truly global network that the combination of hubs in our
network offers. In the case of Akron, service to Pittsburgh allows us
to offer connections throughout the Midwest and western United States
while Dulles allows access to the East Coast, Europe and the Caribbean.
Question 4. There are several markets where US Airways Express, in
joint relationships with other, small carriers, provides the only
nonstop service on certain routes. For example, in Columbus, US Airways
Express teams with small carriers to provide nonstop service to
communities such as Grand Rapids, MI and Indianapolis., IN. What will
happen to these routes, and others like them, after the merger?
Answer. Overall, United is committed to maintaining service levels
in Columbus. Today, service from Columbus to Fort Wayne and Grand
Rapids is provided by Chautauqua Airlines, an independent regional
carrier. Without knowing the specific profitability of the US Airways
Express service, we cannot make a concrete commitment to continuing
these specific flights. However, after the transaction closes, we will
work with the Express carriers to evaluate all current US Airways
Express routes. The passenger feed regional carriers such as Chautauqua
Airlines provides to US Airways' network will continue to be very
important to United's global network after the merger is completed and
we expect to maintain service on all current routes.
Question 5. There are at least two routes from Ohio cities
(Columbus and Dayton) to Washington Dulles where United and US Airways
are the only carriers currently offering nonstop service. If this
merger is permitted to go through, these communities will basically
lose all competition on these routes. Doesn't this merger harm
consumers in those communities? What should be required during the
merger review process to ensure that all nonstop competition is not
lost on these routes?
Answer. The merger will have no anticompetitive effects in terms of
service between these Ohio cities and Washington D.C. With the DC Air
divestiture, DC Air will be the second competitor providing service
between Columbus and Dayton and Washington D.C., providing the only jet
service between these cities United expects the Justice Department, as
part of its review process to analyze competition in all nonstop city
pair markets from Washington.
______
Responses of James E. Goodwin to Questions From Senator Grassley
Question 1. Recently, Section 155 of the AIR-21 legislation found
that 15 large hub airports are each dominated by one air carrier with
each such carrier controlling more than 50 percent of the traffic at
the hub. The FAA actually has 41 airports on its list. The General
Accounting Office has found that such levels of concentration lead to
higher airfares. A merged United-US Airways would be the dominant
carrier in 10 major US airports. How can this Committee be certain that
this market dominance will not harm the American traveler both through
increased hub dominance, higher prices and reduced services? These
airports must submit competition plans to the FAA before an increase in
the Passenger Facility Charge can be approved. How does this merger
help these airports comply with the law to receive PFC increases?
Answer. United and US Airways have little presence at each other's
hubs, so the merger will have insignificant effect in terms of
increased shares at the carriers' eight hubs. The DC Air divestiture
will address the only hub airport at which the merger could have been
viewed as arguably having a significant effect at a hub airport. Nor
will the merger have a significant effect on the combined presence of
the two airlines at other airports. Indeed, at some airports, the
merger will permit the combined entity to be a more effective
competitor with the #1 carrier at those airports.
As you are aware, the new FAA Reauthorization law requires 40
airports--hubs where one or two carriers control more than 50 percent
of the passenger boardings--to file competition plans if they seek
higher PFCs, new PFCs or new Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants.
As we understand the provision, it is intended to encourage such
airports to develop and implement plans to promote competition and
capacity enhancement. We believe these plans will be useful since they
will encourage airports to focus on ways to expand ground side capacity
at existing airports. To be eligible for PFC increases in the future,
covered airports will be required to prepare such competition plans
irrespective of our proposed combination. Accordingly, our proposed
merger appears not be directly relevant to an airport's decision
whether to develop a competition plan as a precondition for seeking a
PFC increase.
Question 2. Concerns have been raised that this merger would create
a frenzy of airline consolidations that would eventually lead to higher
prices and reduced choices. We've already heard rumblings of other
airlines talking about consolidation. Do you believe that if the
United-US Airways transaction prompts other airlines to merge, this is
good for the average American traveler? What about the concerns that a
strike by the workers at one of these mega-airlines would be
catastrophic for travelers?
Answer. What matters is the number of airlines that are actual
competitors in a particular city pair market, not the number of overall
airlines. A merger can, in fact, enhance competition at a city pair
level, because the combined entity may be able to compete in city pair
markets that were not economically viable for the two airlines
separately. For that reason, industry consolidation is not necessarily
inconsistent with increased competition.
United does not necessarily believe that it is likely that other
airlines will merger, nor does it discount this possibility. The
competitive effects of any subsequent airline merger would have to be
considered on its own merits and United believes it is premature to
speculate on the likely competitive effects of hypothetical mergers. In
any industry, one can always speculate that a sufficient number of
future mergers may occur such that eventually there might be harmful
competitive effects. If this hypothetical possibility were sufficient
to prevent a merger, no merger would ever be approved. United also
notes that the merger of United and US Airways is a merger between two
complementary airlines with little competitive overlap and will
generate significant benefits for passengers, a combination that other
airline mergers may have difficulty establishing.
Often, the most significant competitive factor affecting
competition in a city pair market is the presence of a low cost
carrier. Neither the United-US Airways merger nor the industry
consolidation hypothesized by many would have adverse effects on low
cost carriers. Indeed, with the creation of DC Air, the United-US
Airways merger would lead to the creation of a new low cost carrier at
Reagan National.
Under no circumstances would hypothesized consolidation result in
just three major carriers as some suggest. Southwest Airlines, the
fastest growing and most profitable airline today, will continue to
compete vigorously and discipline prices. At its current rate of
growth, Southwest is likely to be the largest domestic U.S. carrier
within the next few years. Moreover, other low-fare carriers also will
continue to compete effectively and offer consumers competitive air
service options.
With regard to any possible concern about a strike, the combined
carrier would be subject to the same labor laws and strike protections
that apply to the individual carriers. The Railway Labor Act which
governs carrier and employee conduct during a strike has a series of
steps which preclude strikes or other forms of economic self-help.
These steps include the ability of a carrier to seek injunctive relief
and a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) which can be convened by the
President if the dispute ``threatens substantially to interrupt
commerce.'' Congress also has the ability, which it has used on
occasion, to pass special legislation further prohibiting parties from
resorting to self-help, submitting the dispute to a second PEB or even
accepting the PEB's recommendations.
______
Responses of James E. Goodwin to Questions From Senator Kohl
Question 1. What do you think of this, Mr. Goodwin? Would you agree
to those types of ``market opening'' conditions in order to gain
approval of the merger?
Answer. United intends to cooperate fully with the Justice
Department's investigation of the merger and is willing to work with
the agency proactively to address potential anticompetitive concerns.
In that regard, United will be willing to listen to any ideas or
suggestions the Justice Department might have along these lines. United
would note that any proposed condition to the merger should generate
pro-competitive effects and it does not believe that limiting United's
ability to add service (or requiring United to eliminate service) is
pro-competitive, nor does United believe the Justice Department will
likely view reductions in service as pro-competitive or beneficial to
consumers.
Question 2. Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Wolf, do you believe it is likely
that this deal will lead to other mergers among major airlines? If so,
shouldn't we be concerned that additional consolidation in the airline
industry will be harmful to competition? And, in your view, what is the
minimum number of major airlines we need to ensure vigorous competition
in the domestic airline industry?
Answer. United does not necessarily believe that it is likely that
other airlines will merge, nor does it discount this possibility. The
competitive effects of any subsequent airline merger would have to be
considered on its own merits and United believes it is premature to
speculate on the likely competitive effects of hypothetical mergers. In
any industry, one can always speculate that a sufficient number of
future mergers may occur such that eventually there might be a
competitive effect. If this hypothetical possibility were sufficient to
prevent a merger, no merger would ever be approved. United also notes
that the merger of United and US Airways is a merger between two
complementary airlines with little competitive overlap and will
generate significant benefits for passengers, a combination that other
airline mergers may have difficulty establishing.
Regarding the number of airlines needed to ensure competition, what
matters is the number of airlines that are actual or potential
competitiors in a particular city pair market, not the number of
overall airlines. A merger can, in fact, enhance competition at a city
pair level, because the combined entity may be able to compete in city
pair markets that were not economically viable for the two airlines
separately. For that reason, industry consolidation is not necessarily
inconsistent with increased competition. Moreover, often the most
significant competitive factor affecting competition in a city pair
market is the presence of a low cost carrier, and neither the United-US
Airways merger nor the industry consolidation hypothesized by many
would have adverse effects on low cost carriers. Indeed, with the
creation of DC Air, the United-US Airways merger would lead to the
creation of a new low cost carrier at Reagan National.
Question 3. Mr. Goodwin, would it be good for competition if other
airlines besides DC Air had a chance to obtain some of these slots at
DC National?
Answer. As we considered the sale of assets at Reagan National
Airport, we took into account a number of factors. First, we wanted to
sell the assets to a carrier that was committed to serving the
Washington, DC area on a long-term basis. Second, we wanted to ensure
our shareholders that we received fair market value for the assets in
an arm's length transaction where the purchase price reflected the
give-and-take of negotiations. Finally, we wanted to identify a carrier
that would maintain the current service pattern between Reagan National
and many small and mid-sized communities that currently rely on US
Airways for non-stop access to Reagan National. If slots were sold-off
on a piecemeal basis as the question suggests, we believe this service
to small city markets would be put at risk. In contrast, by selling the
slots in a block to DC Air, we believed we will preserve small city air
service access to Reagan National from numerous small communities
throughout the eastern U.S.
______
Responses of James E. Goodwin to Question From Senator Leahy
Question 1. Will the newly merged airline keep the same number of
seats flying to and from the Burlington, Vermont airport? Will the
newly merged airlines fly the same number and type of aircraft to and
from Burlington? What commitments has United made to provide such
service?
Answer. United will maintain all existing service operated to/from
Burlington with the exception of service to Reagan Washington National.
Burlington/Reagan Washington National service will be taken over by DC
Air which has announced that it intends to offer two roundtrip flights
per day and upgrade from turboprop to regional jet service. With
respect to United's Burlington service after the merger, we intend to
operator the same number of flights as we do today. We also plan to
operate all existing jet service with jet aircraft, but the exact types
of aircraft cannot be determined at this time since we have not made
final allocation decisions. We expect to make such decisions close to
completion of the merger and the time we produce our first combined
schedule.
Question 2. US Airways has regional codeshare agreements with
Allegheny and PSA operating out of Burlington. Will the merged airline
keep all of the combined regional airline codeshare agreements? Will
all of the regional airlines be effectively assumed into the new
operation?
Answer. The passenger feed that these regional carriers provide to
US Airways' current hubs will be crucial to our combined network after
the merger. At this time, the exact structure of that ongoing
relationship with PSA and Allegheny will take after the merger has yet
to be determined. Today, Allegheny serves the New York La Guardia
market and we will maintain the 5 flights they provide. PSA serves
Burlington only to Reagan Washington National airport and DC Air will
provide this service after the merger.
Question 3. In the past, US Airways has placed marketing and sales
focus on the Northeast region during ski season. Does the newly merged
United intend to dedicate as much marketing and sales focus to the
Northeast as did US Airways? This is of particular concern to Vermont
since United has, in the past, focused on sales to the Colorado ski
market.
Answer. As the ``Skier's Airline of Choice,'' United has solid
leisure strategy for the Ski market. Our Leisure Sales organization has
devoted a full time ``ski specialist,'' at our headquarters level to
coordinate all aspects of our ski customers needs. Additionally, we
have a dedicated wholesale desk in Detroit, which provides reservation
sales support to our more than 30 regional and national ski wholesale
partners, as well as, all major resort central reservation offices
throughout the Colorado Rocky Mountain region. United is poised to
expand its wholesale relationships with other ski specialist in
Vermont, once our merger agreement with US Airways is concluded.
United plays an important role with establishing ``seasonal direct
air service'' to many of the primary ski resorts. Something that we
would certainly evaluate with the ski resorts in Vermont, given our
planned merger with US Airways.
Although United's focus in the past has been in the Colorado
region, we anticipate our strong Midwest presence, and the effective
north/south route structure by US Airways, will make us a winning
combination for our existing wholesalers, and other leisure partners,
selling the Vermont ski areas.
Question 4. Metrojet is a low-cost carrier that is a wholly owned
subsidiary of US Airways. It effectively competes with Southwest in the
Northeast particularly in Albany, Manchester and Hartford. Will United
create a similar low-cost service to those destinations?
Answer. United has not made a final decision on the status of
Metrojet but we recognize the importance of providing a low-cost
operation in the East as a competitive counterbalance to not only
Southwest Airlines but other low-fare carriers such as JetBlue and
AirTran. We have not decided on the exact deployment of such a service
but it is likely to include such cities as those mentioned. The routes
currently served by Metrojet at Albany and Manchester are being
discontinued for the time being but they will be reevaluated as our
plans for low-fare operation in the East evolve.
Question 5. Will United continue to operate all existing hubs as
hubs?
Answer. The hallmark of our proposed merger is to expand single-
carrier service for passengers throughout our global network. To
accomplish this goal, we will need all of our current hubs plus the
Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia hubs currently operated by US
Airways. Accordingly, we plan to continue to operate all existing hubs.
Question 6. What factors did United Airlines consider in deciding
to run the shuttle from Reagan National Airport to LaGuardia Airport,
rather than sell that route to DC Air? Why were these routes left out
of the deal with DC Air?
Answer. United is generally very pleased with the performance of
its Dulles hub but there is a very strong demand from New York to
Washington for service to Reagan Washington National that we are not
able to satisfy today. As a result, we decided to include the Shuttle
operations at Reagan Washington National in our purchase of US Airways.
They deliver considerable benefits, which are part of the value of the
deal and we felt that the presence these operations gave in Washington,
New York and Boston would be a necessary part of the merger.
We also believe that in the case of Washington to New York the
markets using the Shuttle at Reagan National and the service at
Washington Dulles are distinct and the merger therefore does not
present an overlap.
Question 7. Did United consider creating its own big hub in the
northeast, rather than acquiring one from US Airways?
Answer. We presently operate a hub at Washington Dulles
International Airport. Primarily, it is an east-west hub for domestic
service. It also serves as an important international gateway hub for
flights to Europe and other destinations such as Mexico City.
Responding to customer demand for improved single-carrier service in
the north-south market in the eastern U.S., a little over a year ago we
significantly increased our service at Dulles. While consumers welcomed
this new service, it became apparent to us that expanding our existing
hub at Dulles would not permit us to respond quickly and fully enough
to our customer demand for greater single carrier service in the
Eastern U.S. Instead, we concluded that the only way to do so was to
acquire existing, well-established hubs like Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia. Simply put, our decision to acquire US Airways was driven
by our realization that expanding the current hub at Dulles or building
a new northeastern hub from scratch was not a practical or economically
efficient way to respond fully to customer demand for improved single-
carrier in the north-south market along the East Coast.
______
Responses of United/US Airways to Questions From Senator Kohl
Question 1. [For Goodwin and Wolf]: Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Wolf, do
you believe it is likely that this deal will lead to other mergers
among major airlines? If so, shouldn't we be concerned that additional
consolidation in the airline industry will be harmful to competition?
And, in your view, what is the minimum number of major airlines we need
to ensure vigorous competition in the domestic airline industry?
Answer. It is important to address the question of other future
mergers in this industry in the proper context. To begin with, this
merger brings together two complementary route structures that have
little overlap (United's east-west routes and western presence and US
Airway's north-south network in the eastern U.S.). The result is a
truly national carrier that serves all four corners of this country in
a way that will (i) greatly benefit our consumers and the communities
we serve and (ii) enhance competition.
I do not know if there are other combinations that work as well as
this combination does for the traveling public. For example, is there
another combination that will inject new competition into more than 500
city-pairs currently served by only one carrier (as the United-US
Airways merger will)? Is there another combination that will provide
on-line service for the first time to over 4,000 city-pairs (as the
United-US Airways merger will)? Is there another combination that will
publicly commit to a two-year freeze on structure fares (as United has
already done)? Is there another combination that will publicly commit
to a no-furlough guarantee for the tens of thousands of employees from
both carriers (as United has already done)? Is there another
combination that would bring together two route networks with very
little overlap (as with the United-US Airways combination)? Is there
another combination that expressly provides for the creation of an
independent new entrant carrier (as with the creation of DC Air)? Is
there another combination that will guarantee no reduction for two
years in domestic standard base commission rates for travel agents (as
United has done)? I do not know the answers to these questions; so I
would not want to speculate on whether there will be additional mergers
among the other majors airlines.
Even if other mergers come about, they must be reviewed closely on
their own individual merits to determine, among other things, whether
they provide pro-competitive and pro-consumer benefits like the United-
US Airways merger does. Although I would not predict that the U.S.
airline industry will only have five, four, or even three major
carriers in the future, there is every reason to conclude that such an
industry would continue to be characterized by intense competition. The
major network carriers will continue to compete vigorously with each
other for domestic and international traffic over their respective
networks. Low-cost carriers will continue to grow, offering intense
competition and lower fares in regional markets. Indeed, the industry
is currently undergoing a wave of new entry by well-regarded low cost
carriers such as JetBlue, Air Tran, National, Vanguard, Spirit, and
others. Moreover, just as this transaction will result in a new entrant
carrier in DC Air, other transactions may likewise produce new carriers
and lead to the divestiture of assets creating even more opportunities
for new entry and increased competition.
Question 2. [For Goodwin]: Mr. Goodwin, wouldn't it be good for
competition if other airlines besides DC Air had a chance to obtain
some of these slots at DC National?
Answer. No response.
______
Responses of United/US Airways to Questions From Senator Grassley
Question 1. Recently, Section 155 of the AIR-21 legislation found
that 15 large hub airports are each dominated by one air carrier with
each such carrier controlling more than 50% of the traffic at the hub.
The FAA actually has 41 airports on its list. The General Accounting
Office has found that such levels of concentration lead to higher
airfares. A merged United-US Airways would be the dominant carrier in
10 major U.S. airports. How can this Committee be certain that this
market dominance will not harm the American traveler both through
increased hub dominance, higher prices and reduced services? These
airports must submit competition plans to the FAA before an increase in
the Passenger Facility Charge can be approved. How does this merger
help these airports comply with the law to receive PFC increases?
Answer. The United-U.S. Airways merger will not harm consumers
through increased hub dominance, higher fares, or reduced service. The
merger of United and US Airways will greatly benefit our consumers and
the communities we serve. Consumers will enjoy enhanced competition and
expanded service options in both domestic and international markets.
The combined carrier's route network will continue to complete
vigorously with the hub-based networks of other carriers and will
inject new competition into more than 500 city-pairs currently
served by only one carrier. By linking United's east-west and
international routes with US Airway's eastern network, the merger
will provide competitive alternatives in US Airways' hubs in
Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh to other existing hubs and
gateways. Moreover, the merger will result in a new independent
carrier based at Reagan Washington National Airport, providing
service to 43 communities form the nation's capital.
Overall services offered by the combined United-US Airways'
will be greatly expanded: new, first-time on-line service to over
4,000 city-pairs, and 93 new nonstop fights to international and
domestic destinations.
With respect to fares or pricing, United has publicly
committed to an unprecedented, and easily monitored, two-year
freeze on structure fares (except for CPI and full cost increases).
Because this merger creates a truly efficient nationwide network,
creating more choice for consumers in hundreds of markets, it will
enhance competition, stimulate growth, commerce and jobs across the
U.S. and provide a wealth of benefits in the form of vastly more
convenient service for consumers.
With respect to the new law requiring airports seeking an increase
in Passenger Facility Charges to submit competition plans, the merger
does not directly relate to these proposals, which are directed
primarily toward ensuring competitive access at hub airports. This
merger, however, will enhance competition at hub airports by expanding
choice for consumers and injecting new competitive alternatives in
hundreds of markets currently served only by one carrier. We see this
merger thus as consistent with the objectives of AIR-21.
Question 2. Concerns have been raised that this merger would create
a frenzy of airline consolidations that would eventually lead to higher
prices and reduced choices. We've already heard rumblings of other
airlines talking about consolidation. Do you believe that if the
United-US Airways transaction prompts other airline to merge, this is
good for the average American traveler? What about the concerns that a
strike by the workers at one of these mega-airline would be
catastrophic for travelers.
Answer. It is important to address the question of other future
mergers in this industry in the proper context. To begin with, this
merger brings together two complementary route structures that have
little overlap (United's east-west routes and western presence and US
Airways' north-south network in the eastern U.S.). The result is a
truly national carrier that serves all four corners of this country in
a way that will (i) greatly benefit our consumers and the communities
we serve and (ii) enhance competition.
I do not know if there are other combinations that work as well as
this combination does for the traveling public. For example, is there
another combination that will inject new competition into more than 500
city-pairs currently served by only one carrier (as the United-US
Airways merger will)? Is there another combination that will provide
on-line service for the first time to over 4,000 city-pairs (as the
United-US Airways merger will)? Is there another combination that will
publicly commit to a two-year freeze on structure fares (as United has
already done)? Is there another combination that will publicly commit
to a no-furlough guarantee for the tens of thousands of employees from
both carriers (as United has already done)? Is there another
combination that would bring together two route networks with very
little overlap (as with the United-US Airways combination)? Is there
another combination that expressly provides for the creation of an
independent new entrant carrier (as with the creation of DC Air)? Is
there another combination that will guarantee no reduction for two
years in domestic standard base commission rates for travel agents (as
United has done)? I do not know the answers to these questions; so I
would not want to speculate on whether there will be additional mergers
among the other major airlines.
Even if other mergers come about, they must be reviewed closely on
their own individual merits to determine, among other things, whether
they provide pro-competitive and proconsumer benefits like the United-
US Airways merger does. Although I would not predict that the U.S.
airline industry will only have five, four, or even three major
carriers in the future, there is every reason to conclude that such an
industry would continue to be characterized by intense competition. The
major network carriers will continue to compete vigorously with each
other for domestic and international traffic over their respective
networks. Low-cost carriers will continue to grow, offering intense
competition and lower fares in regional markets. Indeed, the industry
is currently undergoing a wave of new entry by well-regarded low cost
carriers such as JetBlue, Air Tran, National, Vanguard, Spirit, and
others. Moreover, just as this transaction will result in a new entrant
carrier in DC Air, other transactions may likewise produce new carriers
and the lead to the divestiture of asset creating even more
opportunities for new entry and increased competition.
Any strike at a major carrier would have a serious impact on the
traveling public, whether it was United, American, Delta, or Southwest.
The proposed United-US Airways merger is a pro-labor, pro-union
agreement and, as such, we believe it reduces chances of any such labor
strikes. For starters, United has publicly committed not to furlough
any employees as a result of this merger. For US Airways employees, the
merger with United represents and unprecedented opportunity for job
security with a financially strong, well-regarded global carrier with a
strong international alliance. In addition, US Airways employees will
benefit from enhanced job growth opportunities with the world's largest
carrier.
______
Response of Stephen M. Wolf to a Question From Senator Leahy
Question 1. [Stephen Wolf, Chairman of US Airways] Without this
union, what hurdles would US Airways have faced in achieving its stated
goal of ``building a truly global carrier''? Do you anticipate that
other airlines that attempt to compete with the newly merged airline
will face these same barriers?
Answer. In the past few years, the dedicated and hard-working
employees at US Airways have made great strides toward our goal of
becoming the carrier of choice for travelers. That being said, however,
certain marketplace realities confront us. US Airways is currently
unique in its position as a mid-sized carrier with a mature cost
structure. We have the costs of our large network competitors, but
unlike them, we lack the ability to spread these costs over a larger
network with longer average stage lengths. In the post-deregulation
era, all other carriers similarly situated to US Airways have either
gone out of business or have gone through bankruptcy proceedings.
Braniff and TWA provide very instructive examples. Both Braniff and
TWA were pre-deregulation carriers that were not able to respond
efficiently to the challenges of the deregulated marketplace. They were
both mid-sized carriers that did not expand their route systems to
match the challenge from United, American, Delta, and Northwest.
Despite several bankruptcies and restructuring, Braniff ultimately
disappeared. TWA also has undergone bankruptcies and restructuring
which have substantially reduced its costs and enabled it to survive by
finding a new competitive niche. TWA's long-term position in the
industry, however, is uncertain.
Without this proposed merger, US Airways would need to confront,
and seek to overcome, these hurdles in the coming years--recognizing
that the history for similarly situated carriers has not been pleasant.
I would not anticipate that other airlines competing with the newly
merged airline will face these same barriers because, as I noted above,
US Airways' situation is unique. We have the highest unit operating
costs in the industry with a route network comprised principally of
short/medium-haul services. No other carrier that I can think of is
confronted by these same circumstances.
______
Responses of Stephen M. Wolf to Questions From Senator DeWine
Question 1. Mr. Wolf, you have made several statements in the past
about the necessity of increased access to slots and gates at foreign
airports to bring the benefits of increased competition. Many smaller
carriers have similarly complained about their ability to gain slots at
closed airports, and gates at other airports in the U.S. market. Do you
think it would benefit competition if carriers were required to
relinquish some slots and gates at those airports where they have a
dominant market share?
Answer. The situation at certain foreign airports cannot be readily
compared to the situation of carriers operating domestic services at
slot-controlled airports in the United States. The U.S. Government has
bent over backwards to ensure that foreign carriers seeking to operate
at U.S. slot controlled airports have access to such airports by either
awarding them slots free-of-charge or providing them with slot
exemptions. Other countries, however, have not provided reciprocal
access for U.S. carriers. It took well over a year, for example, after
US Airways received governmental approval to operate Charlotte-London
service before we obtained the necessary slots at Gatwick Airport.
In the domestic market, there are only four airports with slot
restrictions--Chicago O'Hare, New York LaGuardia, New York JFK, and
Washington National. All other airports in this country are open to any
carrier wishing to increase existing service or initiate new service.
Even at those airports where slots are currently required, under the
new FAA reauthorization legislation, AIR-21, passed this year by
Congress, slots are being phased out, opening the way for free and open
access. The only exception is Reagan Washington National Airport where
Congress essentially left the slot regime in place. But even there
Congress provided for 24 new slot exemptions, and new entrants such as
National, Spirit, and Frontier, among others, are already taking
advantage of the increased access.
In structuring this merger, we addressed the issue of concentration
in Washington, DC straight on--with the creation of an independently
owned and operated new entrant carrier, DC Air, at Washington National
Airport, serving 43 communities with 37 aircraft from the heart of the
nation's capital.
To our knowledge, gates should be and are available at almost all
airports for new entrant service. No airline has even been prevented
from serving one of US Airways hubs--Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or
Charlotte--as a result of a lack of gates. New entrants, including Air
Tran, America West, Vanguard, and Midway, have all been able to gain
access.
Question 2. A merged United/US Airways will control a significant
number of slots at slot-controlled airports. For example, it will have
control roughly 42% of the slots at New York LaGuardia where slot
restriction will be in place until 2007. Do you believe this high level
of concentration in this large air travel market is anti-competitive?
Answer. Even though slots at LaGuardia will not be phased out
entirely until 2007, under the new AIR-21 legislation passed by
Congress this year, slots are no longer required for carriers that
propose to add flights or initiate new service from LaGuardia to small
hub or non-hub airports with regional jet or other small aircraft. The
result is that smaller markets are seeing a dramatic increase in their
service to LaGuardia.
LaGuardia is, and will remain, an intensely competitive airport.
Several low-cost carriers have increased their operations at the
airport in recent years. There is every reason to believe that this
type of new entry and competition will continue. Moreover, this merger
will result in the unprecedented commitments by United to freeze fares
for two years, maintain service to every city on the joint carriers'
route maps, and guarantee no job loss for employees of both companies.
Question 3. There are several markets where US Airways Express has
entered into relationships with other, small carriers such as PSA,
Piedmont and Allegheny to provide airline service--sometimes the only
nonstop service on certain routes. Some reports indicate that US
Airways' authority to operate the slots and gates being utilized by
these joint arrangements will be transferred to DC Air. What effect
will the merger have on these joint arrangements? Specifically, will
the routes serviced by these joint arrangements continue to be served
and what will happen to the employees of the airlines that supported
the arrangements with US Airways Express?
Answer. With respect to the arrangements that US Airways Express
has entered into with regional carriers such as PSA, Piedmont, and
Allegheny, United, as the purchasing carrier, will assume all of the
contractual rights, duties, and obligations that are contained in those
agreements. Because of the structure of the merger, and the need to
divest assets at Washington National Airport, some of the services
provided by US Airways Express carriers will be operated by DC Air,
which ultimately plans to convert all of its turbo-prop services at
Washington National to jet services. While the exact structure of
United's ongoing relationships with the regional carriers has not been
finalized, the passenger feed that US Airways Express carriers provide
to US Airways' current hubs will continue to be an important part of
the United network.
Question 3a. Is anything being done now to ensure that these small
carriers have clear and adequate notice of any changes that would
result if the merger were approved, to ensure that they remain viable
competitors and their employees don't leave because of uncertainty?
Answer. United has publicly committed that no city currently served
by US Airways or United will lose service as a result of this merger.
United has also committed to assuming all of US Airways' obligations
regarding the US Airways Express carriers.
______
Response of Robert Johnson to a Question From Senator Kohl
Question 1. Mr. Johnson, some commentators have called your planned
airline, DC Air, a ``virtual airline.'' They are worried that your
airline will not be an independent competitor to United and US Airways
because, at least initially, many of your airplanes will be ``wet
leased'' from United and US Airways. This means that, not only will DC
Air lease these airplanes, but the pilots, ground crews, and even
management personnel will be employees of the combined United/US
Airways. Many wonder how, in these circumstances, DC Air can vigorously
and aggressively compete with United/US Airways.
Mr. Johnson, is it true you plan to ``wet lease'' many of your
planes in this manner when you commence operations at DC Air? And, if
so, how will it be possible for DC Air to aggressively compete against
United/US Airways on price or service when, at the start of your
operations, most of your planes, flight crews, and management will be
part of United/US Airways?
Answer. With regard to our relationship with United, there are
really two issues to address. First, as part of the creation of DC Air
we will purchase a number of assets, including slots at Washington
Reagan National, and assume ownership or leases of aircraft, facilities
and equipment required for our business in a one-time transaction.
Second, we will enter into standard industry contractual relationships
for an appropriate transition period, at market rates, to ensure the
continuation of air services on day one for those communities where DC
Air will replaces US Airways' services. For example, United will
contract with us to provide fuel at our airports, and will wet-lease
ten Boeing 737 aircraft to us at market rates. The remaining twenty-
seven aircraft we will operate day one will be a mix of aircraft that
we own and aircraft that we will operate under contract with regional
carriers who make a business of providing such services to other
airlines. Additionally, we are ready to begin discussions with other
major carriers to seek out partnering opportunities such as code-
sharing and frequent flyer arrangements.
These contracts address the logistical issues associated with
ensuring complete continuity of service to Washington, D.C. from the 43
communities we will serve on day one of our operations. Typically, a
new entrant carrier begins with one or two aircraft and grows by adding
one aircraft at a time over a period of years. DC Air is unique in that
it is imperative to the successful implementation of our plan that we
from day one serve 43 cities from Washington, D.C. so that there is no
interruption of service to any of the communities presently being
served by US Airways. We will do this with thirty-seven aircraft,
replacing current US Airways service in well-developed, profitable
markets with a long history of service and a customer base of some 3
million passengers per year.
Although United is contracting with DC Air to provide these
transition services to us to ensure that our customers will enjoy the
continuity of service, wet leasing aircraft in no way impedes DC Air's
ability to complete with United or anyone else. In a wet lease,
operational control of the aircraft is left to United, by United will
have no influence over our management, pricing, marketing, identity,
aircraft scheduling, or other activities. We expect to compete
vigorously with United and other airlines including Delta, Southwest,
AirTran, and others, on the basis of price and service across our
network.
Our cost projections indicate that DC Air will start ``out of the
box'' with costs per seat mile that are significantly lower than US
Airways' costs for operating its Washington Reagan National routes.
This reduction is due to several factors:
DC Air, as a new entrant carrier with a focused operation, will
have lower overhead costs; With the exception of the ten B737 aircraft
to be wet-leased for a transition period from United, DC Air's unit
labor costs will be consistent with other new entrant and regional
carriers, and will not be burdened with the productivity issues
associated with the complex operations of traditional ``mainline'' U.S.
carriers;
Our fleet of aircraft, which will ultimately be an all-jet fleet,
will be appropriate for the routes we will serve.
And, as we phrase out of our transition agreements with United, we
expect our costs to be further reduced.
Because our costs are lower, and because we will have a singular
focus on serving Washington, D.C. to/from the 43 other communities in
our network, we will be able to offer high quality service and
extremely competitive fares.
______
Responses of Robert Johnson to Questions From Senator Leahy
Question 1. What kind of service--frequency, cost, nonstop, one-
stop to major cities, discounted tickets--will DC Air be providing to
Vermont? What commitments has DC Air made to provide such service?
Answer. DC Air is committed to continuing US Airways' current two
daily round trip frequencies from Washington Reagan National to
Burlington, but we will upgrade that service from the current turboprop
aircraft to regional jets. Connections will be available to popular
destinations such as New Orleans, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Ft.
Lauderdale, Raleigh, and Atlanta, among others. We will bring a special
focus on the Washington, D.C. passenger, and we are committed to
providing high quality service at the lowest possible fares to the
communities we serve.
Question 2. Did DC Air negotiate to purchase US Air's profitable
shuttle service from Reagan, National Airport to LaGuardia Airport. In
your view, why were these routes left out of the deal?
Answer. The Shuttle was not discussed as part of the transaction
that will create DC Air. The Shuttle is a highly specialized operation,
requiring different aircraft from those DC Air will use to serve our
markets, and with some very specialized marketing and operational
requirements as well.
Question 3. Does DC Air intend to operate as a low-cost carrier,
such as Southwest Airlines as opposed to a ``competitive carrier''?
Answer. Our cost projections indicate that DC Air will start ``out
of the box'' with costs per seat mile that are significantly lower than
US Airways' costs for operating its Washington Reagan National routes.
This reduction is due to several factors:
DC Air, as a new entrant carrier with a focused operation, will
have lower overhead costs; With the exception of the ten B737 aircraft
to be wet-leased for a transition period from United, DC Air's unit
labor costs will be consistent with other new entrant and regional
carriers, and will not be burdened with the productivity issues
associated with the complex operations of traditional ``mainline'' U.S.
carriers; Our fleet of aircraft, which will ultimately be an all-jet
fleet, will be appropriate for the routes we will serve.
Because our costs are lower, and because we will have a singular
focus on serving Washington, D.C. to the 43 other communities in our
network we will be able to offer high quality service and extremely
competitive fares.
However, Southwest Airlines' costs per seat mile will likely be
lower than DC Air's. This is largely due to structural factors:
Southwest provides high frequency service to larger population centers,
with larger aircraft, and does not fly to the type of small and mid-
sized communities that will make up the core of DC Air's business.
______
Responses of Robert Johnson to Questions From Senator DeWine
Question 1. Some reports indicate that DC Air will service
Columbus, Ohio and Dayton, Ohio with regional jets. It appears that
these communities are currently served with larger jets. Estimates
indicate that the switch to regional jets will reduce seat capacity at
each of these cities from at least 320 seats a day to around 150. Will
you continue to offer the same level of pricing, including the same
number of lower fare seats, with this reduced seat capacity?
Answer. DC Air's initial fleet plan includes eight turboprop
aircraft, nineteen regional jets, and ten Boeing 737-200 aircraft,
which will be used to serve 43 communities from Washington Reagan
National, including Columbus and Dayton. Under this initial fleet plan,
these two cities will be served with three round trips each day using a
mix of jets and regional jets, with the majority of departures being
flown with regional jets. We are currently in discussions with aircraft
manufacturers regarding our long-term aircraft fleet. We have committed
that we will become an all-jet carrier, but have not yet selected the
quantity and seat size for our long-term aircraft.
Currently US Airways serves Columbus and Dayton with three round
trips per day using jets with an average seat size of 100 to 110 seats.
However, these aircraft historically have departed less than half full,
with the ``local'' (i.e., Washington, D.C.-bound) passengers per
departure averaging 41 per trip for Columbus and 39 per trip for
Dayton. Based on these historical patterns, we are comfortable that we
will be able to accommodate the needs of these cities for Washington,
D.C. service. And, by using a more efficient aircraft that is better
suited to the market, we will be able to offer the same number of
departures at a significantly lower cost, and this will translate into
the ability to offer lower fares.
In the event that demand increases, we will have some flexibility
to reallocate jet aircraft within our system to accommodate that
demand.
Question 2. There are several markets where US Airways Express has
entered into relations with other, small carriers such as PSA, Piedmont
and Allegheny to provide airline service--sometimes the only nonstop
service on certain routes. Some reports indicate that US Airways'
authority to operate the slots and gates being utilized by these joint
arrangements will transfer to DC Air. What effect will the merger have
on these joint arrangements? Specifically, will the routes serviced by
these joint arrangements continue to be served and what will happen to
the employees of the airlines that supported the arrangements with US
Airways Express?
Answer. As part of the proposed merger transaction between United
and US Airways, DC Air will acquire 222 take-off and landing slots at
Washington Reagan National. Some of these slots are currently operated
by the wholly owned US Airways Express subsidiaries (Allegheny,
Piedmont and PSA) and some by affiliated US Airways Express carriers
(such as Mesa). The vast majority of routes flown by these airlines
currently will be flown by DC Air. Allegheny, Piedmont and PSA also
provide significant feeder service to US Airways in other locations,
particularly in the hub cities of Charlotte, Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh, as well as in Baltimore and Washington Dulles. It is
expected that these entities will continue to provide feeder service to
the combined operations of US Airways and United going forward.
Final plans as to what assets will be acquired by DC Air have not
yet been made. We are negotiating with United/US Airways as to the
specific assets and in what corporate vehicle they will be packaged. It
is possible that one of US Airways' existing subsidiaries or a yet-to-
be-formed subsidiary will be the nucleus from which DC Air will be
formed. In that event, some number of employees employed by that
subsidiary may transfer with its other assets to DC Air. Because DC
Air's initial operations are relatively small when compared to the
operations of US Airways' existing subsidiaries, we do not expect that
a significant impact would occur with respect to the existing employees
or operations.
----------
Submissions for the Record
Prepared Statement of Hon. Charles E. Grassley, a U.S. Senator From the
State of Iowa
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. As you know,
competition and anti-trust policy are of special interest to me, but
I've been especially focused on airline competition issues because
Iowans have such limited choices in their air travel. Since United is
the world's largest carrier, and US Airways is the nation's sixth
largest carrier, the proposed merger between United and US Airways
raises serious anti-trust questions. My recent experience with the AIR-
21 legislation showed me the importance of increasing airline
competition into the marketplace, yet this merger seems to be heading
the industry in the opposite direction. As a Senator from Iowa, the
proposed merger worries me even more since large sections of the
Midwest already experience high prices and few options. Both of these
airlines currently provide air service to Iowans, and I cannot help but
worry about the impact it may have on air travel for my constituents.
In fact, I've urged both the Departments of Justice and Transportation
to carefully scrutinize this transaction. But my hope is that before
the Justice Department approves this merger, United and US Airways will
fully address these concerns.
Prepared Statement of Ed Perkins, Consumer Advocate for the American
Society of Travel Agents, Inc.
My name is Ed Perkins, and I currently serve as the Consumer
Advocate for the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA). I am also a
nationally syndicated travel columnist and author of several travel
buying guides. I was Founding Editor of Consumer Reports Travel Letter,
from which I retired in 1998. In addressing you today, I am focused
solely on the interests of American consumers, not on those of the
travel industry or any of its components.
In my view, we can't view a proposed merger of United Airlines and
US Airways in isolation. Instead, we must look at it in the broader
context of concentration in the U.S. airline marketplace. And in that
context, I submit that the merger of United and US Airways--or any
other merger between any of the six giant lines--would be highly
inimical to the general public interest and the interests of travel
consumers. I base that conclusion on two sets of issues: pricing and
labor. Let's look at each.
You've already seen and heard lots of claims about the merger's
possible impact on prices. Many of the industry's most celebrated
economists have published learned treatises, and they generally seem to
agree: fares would either go up, go down, or stay about the same. Not
to disparage those economists--I used to be one, myself--but we all
know that, depending on how they structure an issue and the assumptions
they make, capable economists can come to diametrically opposite
conclusions about almost any issue. Certainly this one. More to the
point: If we get bogged down in the details of relative costs,
overlapping routes, hub consolidations, differential wage rates, and
such, we'll quickly lose sight of the basic principles that should
really govern the decision.
Instead of looking at all those murky details, we should focus on
how one or more mergers would impact the process by which the giant
airlines raise and lower prices--specifically, how they would affect
the pricing dynamic in a commodity market, which is the way today's
airline market behaves.
Price increases happen when one giant airline decides an increase
would be a good thing. Immediately, the other giant lines study the
increase and determine if they would also like to see higher prices.
One by one, those that agree announce their own hikes--sometimes
following the originator, sometimes with adjustments. As in the old
saying, one airline runs the fare hike up the flagpole, and the others
start saluting it.
What's critically important here is that it now only takes one of
the six giant lines to reverse the hike. In effect, each of those six
lines has veto power over price hikes in the entire national airline
marketplace. If any one of them doesn't salute, the hike is quickly run
back down the flagpole and returned to the closet.
Clearly, the fewer the number of giant lines, the less chance that
any given price hike will be vetoed. And, in a worst-case scenario, a
concentration down to only three super-giants would make it far easier
for any one of them to make price hikes stick.
The fare-cutting process works the same way. It takes only one of
the six giants to kick off a nationwide fare war. And, as you probably
know, that's when a lot of ordinary consumers buy their tickets. When
it comes to starting a far war, six chances for a price cut are far
better than five, four, or three.
Labor issues, too, militate against further concentration. With the
largest U.S. line owning no more than about a 17% share of the domestic
market, the nation's economy can survive the complete shutdown of any
one giant airline. But only barely: The last American shutdown showed
us how much disruption resulted from a loss of just 11% of the domestic
lift, as measured in passengers.
If you liked that strike, you'd love a shutdown of a merged United-
US Airways system. That would represent just about twice the American
share. Even worse, of course, would be a merged American and Delta,
with a staggering 28% share of total passengers.
We made it through the American stoppage as well as we did, at
least in part, because the other five giant airlines--plus the smaller
players--managed to absorb most of American's travelers, over an
extended period. But could fewer other airlines absorb twice as many
displaced passengers without far more serious disruption? Or, in the
worst case, could two remaining super-giant lines absorb 28% of the
passengers? I don't think so. Instead, the effects of a super-giant
strike would be devastating to the economy, and certainly to the travel
plans of millions of consumers. As with pricing, for labor reasons
alone, we just can't risk more market concentration.
One more point: let's not forget the largely negative effects of an
earlier wave of mergers and acquisitions. How such user-friendly lines
as Air California, New York Air, PSA, Piedmont, and Republic
disappeared in the black hole of mergers? Don't take my word for it;
ask someone from Charlotte or Detroit.
``It needs more study'' is the classic way of evading a tough-
minded decision. Or, in Carleton Green's construct, it's a way of
handling a tough question by ``dissolving it in a weak solution.'' I
would submit that we don't need any more study on the merger question.
We can't afford a weak solution. This is one of those cases that should
be decided by basic principles and common sense, not statistical
models.
And those basic principles come in with a clear message: No more
concentration by merger. No more buying out potential competitors
rather than competing with them. We should take merger and acquisition
among any of the six giant lines completely off the table, starting
now. If any one of those lines is desperate to increase its market
share anywhere in the U.S., let that line do it the old-fashioned way:
earn it, with better service and lower fares.
Thanks for your attention.
______
Prepared Statement of C.A. Howlett, Senior Vice President on Behalf of
America West Airlines, Inc.
America West Airlines, Inc. offers these comments in conjunction
with the Committee's evaluation of the public interest impact on
competition of the proposed merger between United Airlines and U.S.
Airways and the sale of Washington Reagan National Airport slots to a
proposed new airline DC Air. America West is very concerned that
already serious competitive barriers, particularly at airports where
United and U.S. Airways have dominant or strong positions, will only be
exacerbated should the merger be approved in its proposed form.
For America West and other post deregulation carriers, government
imposed or sanctioned competitive barriers including the perimeter
rules at Reagan National and LaGuardia airports, continuing slot
constraints at National, LaGuardia and Kennedy, and the unavailability
of economically usable gates at many metropolitan airports including
National, LaGuardia, Newark, Logan and O'Hare, make it virtually
impossible for new post deregulation carriers to launch meaningful
competition at these airports. America West appreciates the positive
changes to the slot rules enacted by Air 21. However, the proposed
merger highlights the immediate need, before any merger which
contributes to these constraints goes forward, for more expansive
Congressional action to induce badly needed new competition to key
airports in the East and in Chicago.
BACKGROUND
In 1977, Alfred Kahn, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board,
noted that ``Whenever competition is feasible it is, for all its
imperfections, superior to regulation as a means of serving the public
interest.'' The following year, the Airline Deregulation Act was
implemented, phasing out government control over fares and service.
From that point on, Congress intended that market forces would dictate
the price, quantity and quality of domestic air service. In the
deregulated environment, consumers would reap the benefits of open
competition in a free marketplace.
America West Airlines provides the model for post-deregulation
success. It initiated service on Aug. 1, 1983, with three aircraft, 280
employees and a route system consisting of five destinations. As a
small start-up carrier competing head-to-head against much larger and
better-established airlines, its potential for success would be defined
by its ability to effectively distinguish itself from the competition
and build a solid base of loyal customers. Today, America West, the
nation's ninth largest commercial airline, is the only post
deregulation airline to achieve major carrier status. It has
established an effective marketing and operational niche as the only
major network airline to offer a combination of full-service and low
fares. Its customers enjoy the same full range of services provided by
larger airplanes, including advance seat assignments, First Class
cabins in every aircraft, a competitive frequent-flyer program, an
airport lounge club, electronic and online booking, onboard audiovisual
entertainment systems and inflight meal service. America West's 1999
unit cost of 7.52 cents per available seat mile was, for the sixth
consecutive year, the lowest unit cost of all full-service major
carriers. These low costs enable America West to deliver upon
deregulation's promise of expanding the reach of commercial air service
by developing new markets to smaller communities not otherwise served
by major carriers. America West's East Coast to West Coast ``walk-up''
fares and average fares are substantially below those of the largest
incumbent carriers.
America West has achieved this success while weathering the storms
of the marketplace. Mergers, bankruptcies, severe increases in the
price of fuel, and deep traffic losses caused by war and recession have
all been overcome. America West is committed to bringing more East-West
competition to key Eastern airports like Logan, LaGuardia, Newark and
Reagan National, and to expand at O'Hare. To provide viable competition
for business travelers, America West must offer a total of at least
five roundtrips a day to its hubs. Slots, perimeter rules and lack of
gates prevent the full development of this service and deprive the
public of the benefits of competition by America West and other lower
cost carriers. These barriers to competition remain as a result of
government inaction. Without Congressional action, regardless of the
outcome of the pending merger these barriers will remain. Further
consolidation of the industry without government action to alleviate
these barriers to entry will doom the competitive environment. Congress
must act to ensure complete and unfettered access to the marketplace by
eliminating archaic slot and perimeter rules while ensuring all
competitors have access to gates and associated facilities at federally
funded airports.
Slots
Congress recently made some additional new entrant slots available
at O'Hare, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports and repealed the High Density
Rule (HDR) governing Chicago's O'Hare to be fully effective in 2001 and
New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports in 2007. While this action
was important, LaGuardia and JFK will remain subject to slot rules for
seven more years. At these airports, slots will continue to hinder
competitive entry. Moreover Air 21 did very little to stimulate
competition at Reagan National Airport where the HDR restricts the
number of hourly slots allocated for commercial takeoffs and landings
to 37 for jets and 11 for commuter aircraft which total to
approximately 760 commercial operations per day. The 24 daily exemption
slots provided under Air 21 constitute only a three percent increase in
slots. America West hopes to stimulate competition to the West at
Reagan National with the slot exemptions it received under Air 21.
However, its ability to do so is limited by the fact that it canoperate
only three daily round trips rather than the five it requested from the
Department of Transportation. As a result of slot restrictions, DCA is
one of the highest cost airports in the country, with virtually no
ability to expand capacity or otherwise improve the competitive
environment.
As America West has pointed out over the last decade, DOT/FAA
attempts to increase competition at slot-controlled airports in general
and at DCA in particular have been woefully inadequate. See Government
Accounting Office, Airline Deregulation: Barriers to Entry Continue to
Limit Competition in Several Key Domestic Markets, Letter 3 (Letter
Report, 10.18/96, GAO/RCED-9704) (hereafter, ``GAO Airline Deregulation
Report''). According to the GAO, the trend toward market concentration
at slot-controlled airports has continued throughout the past decade:
Since the early 1990s, a few established carriers have continued to
build upon the favorable positions they inherited as a result of
grandfathering. By contrast, the share held by the airlines that
started after deregulation has remained low.
Because the number of slots is largely fixed and the holding of
those slots is concentrated among a few established carriers, a
seller's market has emerged, and slots have become very expensive. . .
. Moreover, in order to mount competitive service in a market, an
airline generally needs about six slots, with at least three slots
falling during the peak periods so that the airline can offer a flight
schedule that is attractive to business travelers. As a result, for the
airlines that started after deregulation, the cost of purchasing the
slots necessary to compete effectively may be prohibitive.
Even if financing can be arranged, buying slots is extremely
difficult for newer airlines because the established carriers rarely
sell their slots, and when they do, the buyer is usually an airline
that already holds a large number of slots at the airport.
GAO Airline Deregulation Report, Letter 3:1. The net result,
according to the GAO: ``[L]ittle or no entry has occurred at'' Reagan
National and other slot-controlled airports. GAO Airline Deregulation
Report, Letter 3. America West urges Congress to advance the date for
the termination of slots at LaGuardia and JFK, and to also act to
abolish slots at Reagan National.
If the High Density Rule at Reagan National cannot be repealed,
then slots must be added. In its 1995 slot study the Department of
Transportation reported that DCA could easily handle an additional 7
slots an hour or 126 flights per day. Given the Stage 3 noise
requirement, these slots could be added with no significant impact on
noise or increase in delays. If Congress added 100 slots (50 additional
round trips) for either inside or outside perimeter flights, to post
deregulation carriers operating large aircraft, it would generate
substantial new competition. Since 50 additional round trips by post
deregulation carriers like America West could have a substantial
competitive impact in many markets, the competitive concerns associated
with the proposed transfer of slots to DC Air would be lessened.
However, without a substantial increase in slots, any approval of the
proposed merger should require the transfer of the proposed DC Air
slots to post deregulation carriers that can maximize competition.
PERIMETER RULES
Washington Reagan National
The perimeter rule at Reagan National limits non-stop flights to a
distance of 1,250 miles. The perimeter rule never served any safety
purpose. It was a tool created to divert traffic to the fledgling
Washington Dulles International Airport. However, the primary effect of
the rule has been to bolster the ability of the large incumbent
carriers to flow East-West traffic through their primary hubs by
offering multiple daily connecting flights and preventing new low fair
competition. A recent GAO study shows that unrestrained access to
Dulles and BWI by low-fare carriers has had little or no impact on
fares at Reagan National, primarily because, for reasons of
convenience, air travelers in the Baltimore Washington region
(particularly business travelers) are unlikely to switch airports. GAO
Letter Report, Reagan National Airport: Capacity to Handle Additional
Flights and Impact on Other Area Airports, Letters 1 and 5 (GAO/RCED-
99-234, Sept. 1999). This situation would only be exacerbated if the
proposed merger was permitted to go forward while the perimeter rule
remains in effect.
Moreover, there is no longer any need to protect Dulles, which has
established itself as a significant domestic and international
destination. The airport's emplacements are already comparable to those
at DCA. In addition much of the area's growing high tech enterprises
and new residential development are located near Dulles which is the
fastest growing airport in the United States as reflected in the
recently announced a six year $3.4 billion building plan that includes
a new runway. Dulles to Undergo Major Expansion, The Washington Post,
July 20, 2000 at A-1. The pending transaction demonstrates the
importance of Dulles and United's commitment to it. When faced with the
perceived need to divest overlapping routes involving the Washington,
D.C. area, United And US Airways voluntarily chose to retain Dulles and
substantially reduce service to National. Today, the perimeter rule
simply distorts the market while conferring no consumer benefits.
New York LaGuardia
The perimeter rule governing LaGuardia was imposed decades ago
primarily to control ground congestion at and around the facility and
to generate service at the newly developed JFK. Subsequent changes at
LGA and JFK as well as aircraft technology over the intervening years
makes the rule a superfluous barrier to entry that deprives New York
travelers the full range of options that should be available at all
three airports serving the New York metropolitan area. The Department
of Transportation has found LaGuardia constitutes a unique market apart
from these other airports. Barring action by the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey, only Congress is in a position to enact
legislation to preempt the locally imposed perimeter rule--a
significant barrier to competition at this critically important New
York airport. The proposed merger would likely further restricted East-
West competition from LaGuardia unless the perimeter rule is abolished.
GATES
Lack of adequate gate access and related facilities has hindered
new entrants at many major Airport. Inability to obtain gates has hurt
America West's ability to compete at major airports and remains a
serious problem at eleven major airports including Newark, LaGuardia
Philadelphia, Hartford, Baltimore-Washington, O'Hare, Atlanta and San
Francisco. America West believes consumers would reap a high benefit
from improved access by America West and other post deregulation
carriers if gates at these airports were available.The gate and airport
facilities problem will only be exacerbated by regulatory approval and
closure of United--U.S. Airways merger, which consolidates gate
holdings of United and US Airways at many of these airports. Without
reasonable access to adequate gates and related facilities, new entry
at key airports is effectively blocked. See Department of
Transportation, FAA/OST Task Force Study, Airport Business Practices
and Their Impact on Airline Competition, October 1999. Congress has
responded to the Task Force Study by including in Air 21 a requirement
for major airports to prepare a competition plan and requiring the
Secretary of Transportation to ``ensure that gates and other facilities
are made available at costs that are fair and reasonable.'' America
West applauds this action but believes Congress needs to take more
aggressive action in this area.
Airport officials at Newark where 84 percent of the gates are
subject to exclusive-use leases recently confirmed there are currently
no gates available at that airport. At LaGuardia and O'Hare, 83 percent
and 85 percent respectively of the gates are the subject of exclusive
use agreements. According to the Metropolitan Washington Airports
Authority (MWAA), all 42 gates available for jet operations at Reagan
National are leased to the incumbent tenant airlines until 2014. Reagan
National Airport: Capacity to Handle Additional Flights and Impact on
Other Area Airports (Letter Report, 09/17/99, GAO/RCED-99-234).
Although MWAA officials are committed to addressing gate access, a
recent GAO report remains decidedly pessimistic:
MWAA may make a gate available to another airline when it is not
needed to support the tenant airline's scheduled operations. While a
tenant airline cannot prevent another airline from using the gate when
it does not need it, the only effective opportunity for a new entrant
to initiate service at key business times of the day or for an
incumbent to expand service is through a contractual arrangement with
the tenant airline. To date, this is how new entrants have gained
access to the airports.
These arrangements have been generally inadequate for new entrants
and today the incumbents are withdrawing gates they have made available
in the past. While incumbents may not use some gates and under utilize
other gates at these airports, America West has been unable to obtain
its own gates and is forced to enter into short therm handling
agreements with incumbents subject to 30 or 60 day termination clauses
to operate at these facilities. For example, at O'Hare America West
uses Continental gates under a master handling agreement. However, if
as expected, Continental expands its O'Hare service, America West may
be forced out of the airport. In this connection, the rapid growth of
regional jets will soon put additional pressure on gate availability
and post deregulation carriers will likely be squeezed out of many key
airports if action to protect access is not taken soon. In addition, at
O'Hare where America West has attempted unsuccessfully for over a year
to obtain its own gates, it pays an annual fuel surcharge of between
$250,000 and $300,000 because it is not a signatory airline. These
additional charges place America West at a competitive disadvantage to
incumbent carriers. At BWI, America West's short term agreement with
Continental was recently terminated forcing America West to relocate to
the International terminal, where it is the only domestic airline using
international gates for domestic service. Moreover, BWI officials have
stated that if it obtains additional international flights America West
must give up these gates. If America West cannot locate gates with
another incumbent it will be forced out of this important airport.
Finally at San Francisco, another United stronghold, America West
currently is handled by TWA. America West has requested two own gate
from the airport. However, despite the renovation of the airport and
Congressional concern that airports be pro-active in providing access
for new entrants, America West's request will be considered only if
Delta, which as a signatory airline has a preference does not take
these gates.
America West's experience confirms the findings of the Department
of Transportation and the GAO that exclusive use leases and majority in
interest agreements to be barriers to entry. Task Force Study at 38.
America West believes Congress should direct DOT to take immediate
action to compel airports to provide reasonable gate access and other
facilities to new entrant carriers where exclusive use or other
agreements thatare vestiges of the pre-deregulation system block
competitive new entry. It is clear from the Task Force Study that
current federal law--including Section 155 of Air 21, airport grant
agreements with the FAA, and DOT's authority to prevent unfair trade
practices by airlines--is sufficient to enable DOT to act aggressively
to ensure new entrants gain reasonable access to gates. Should the
Department of Justice consider approval of the merger, it must require
United and US Airways to make available a reasonable number of gates at
Reagan National, LaGuardia, Boston Logan, O'Hare and Newark to permit
needed competition to be introduced by post deregulation carriers.
DC AIR
Like many of the witnesses who testified on the proposed merger at
the Committee hearings, America West questions whether DC Air
represents a real competitive force at Reagan National. Certainly, DC
Air will not be independent of United and this lack of independence
means there will not be real competition against the merged carrier. DC
Air will wet-lease ten 737-200 aircraft from United for at least two
years. United will provide gates to DC Air, which as emphasized above,
it is not prepared to do for other new entrants at Reagan National that
could compete against it. United will also provide maintenance services
and DC Air will participate in United's frequent flyer program. Such
dependence, as members of this Committee have pointed out, does not
create the true independence required to provide meaningful competition
to the combined United/US Airways in any market.
America West and other post deregulation carriers have been
essentially excluded from serving Reagan National. In this light, it
would be unconscionable to permit United and US Airways to determine
that a single start-up airline serving predominantly short-haul routes,
dependent on United for aircraft and support and linked to United's
frequent flyer program and international alliance will solve any
competitive concerns at the airport. In essence this would be like
allowing American and British Airways to spin off a ``new'' airline at
Heathrow that uses BA aircraft and crews and is a member of their
oneworld alliance, to provide new competition at that airport.
CONCLUSION
Regardless of any conditions the Department of Justice may propose
to United and US Airways to find this merger acceptable, America West
believes additional Congressional action is necessary to eliminate
those vestiges of the pre-1978 regulatory environment that continues to
inhibit competition at key airports. Specifically, America West
believes Congress should immediately:
Advance the date for abolishing the slot restrictions at
LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.
Abolish slot restrictions at Reagan National or in the
alternative provide 100 additional slots to be made available to post
deregulation carriers.
Abolish the perimeter rules at Reagan National and
LaGuardia airports.
Instruct the Secretary of Transportation to take the
necessary steps to ensure that any post deregulation carrier can obtain
sufficient gates and related facilities at major airports to operate up
to five round trips a day to that carrier's primary hub airports.
By taking these steps, Congress will bring the benefits of
deregulation to key airports in the East and Midwest where government
policies and the historic dominance of the pre-deregulation carriers
has prevented meaningful competition and unfairly tilted the playing
field in favor of the major high fare carriers. Congress took an
important first step in Air 21 to open up slots, and by permitting a
few beyond perimeter flights at Reagan National. Now is the time for
Congress to complete the process of deregulation and level the playing
field so America West and other low cost highly competitive carriers
can serve these important markets that remain subject to restraints
that serve no purpose but to protect the largest incumbent airlines.