Congress Should Focus on Free Markets to Enhance Airline Competition

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights will hold a hearing entitled “Examining Competition in America’s Skies.” Members of Congress can use this hearing as an opportunity to emphasize how free-market policies and deregulation contribute to greater competition and consumer benefits in the airline industry.

In January, Americans for Tax Reform submitted comments to a joint request for information (RFI) from the Biden-era Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Transportation (DOT), which sought information regarding competition in air transportation. This RFI followed years of the Biden DOJ and DOT targeting the airline industry with regulatory overreach and misguided antitrust policies.

In the comment letter, ATR described the benefits of airline deregulation for consumers and workers, the harms of costly overregulation, and the damage to consumer choice caused by unjustified overreach in antitrust investigations.

Airline deregulation since the 1970s has resulted in enormous success. The cost of flying in the United States today is less expensive than ever before. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the average domestic airfare has fallen more than 35 percent since the year 1995, in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Consumer choice has also improved in recent decades: The number of airline competitors for each domestic trip has increased, from 3.33 on average in the year 2000 to 3.48 on average in 2024. Airline employees have seen benefits from greater free-market policies as well, with wages in the industry growing more than twice as quickly as the U.S. private-sector average since 2010.

Consumers have spoken, and they believe themselves that the quality of air travel has improved. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the airline industry reached “an all-time customer satisfaction high” in 2024, reaching a score of 77 out of 100, up from a score of just 62 in 2008. This significant improvement of customer satisfaction coincided with at least 17 approved mergers and acquisitions of U.S. airlines in the intervening years.

The overbearing antitrust philosophy of the previous administration not only ignored this positive state of the airline market, but actually created new problems which restricted competition.

In one poignant case, DOJ sued in 2023 to block a proposed acquisition of Spirit Airlines Inc. by JetBlue Airways Corporation. Upon the final decision to block the acquisition, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ruling was “a victory for tens of millions of travelers.” However, within months, Spirit Airlines was forced to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a result of financial difficulties and the blocked acquisition. The result of the government’s purported “pro-competition” policy was in fact a reduction in competition, as well as harm to employees and consumers who would have benefitted from the deal.

Tuesday’s hearing examining the state of competition in air transportation provides a great opportunity for Congress to highlight the great successes of deregulation and free-market policies while avoiding the costly mistakes of the previous administration.