The Price Effects of Mergers in Airline Networks

We study the price effects of mergers in airline networks. Guided by a review of the existing theoretical and empirical literature, we develop two classifications of routes possibly affected by an airline merger. Subsequently, we apply a difference-in-differences approach to exemplarily investigate the price effects of the America West Airlines — US Airways merger completed in 2005. We find that although average prices increased substantially on routes in which both airlines competed either on a non-stop or one-stop basis prior to the merger, substantial average price reductions observed for routes without any pre-merger overlap suggest that the merger led to a net increase in consumer welfare.