Washington, D.C. — With new Consumer Price Index (CPI) data today showing that airline fares fell for the second month in a row after the Department of Justice Antitrust Division blocked two big airline deals stopping further consolidation in the industry, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“The DOJ is winning in court against major airline deals and now the prices Americans pay to fly are falling. Assistant Attorney General Kanter and the DOJ Antitrust Division have now blocked two major airline deals, JetBlue-Spirit merger and the American Airlines-JetBlue Northeast Alliance de-factor merger—deals that would have consolidated the industry and allowed bigger airlines to raise prices. Competition leads to lower fares for passengers across the country, and there’s clear data to back that up.”

“Gas prices are coming down after an investigation into potential price fixing. Inhaler prices are falling thanks to the FTC’s bogus patent challenges. Lower prices for Americans don’t just happen, they are the result of robust antitrust enforcement. Big, price-gouging corporations are now on notice and they know it. Today’s CPI report is a huge win for the Biden Administration’s corporate power agenda.”

Background:

This morning’s CPI report revealed that, “the index for airline fares fell 3.6 percent in May, following a 0.8-percent decrease in April.” Earlier this year, in an enormous victory for travelers, workers, and local communities, a judge sided with the DOJ in its challenge to block the proposed JetBlue-Spirit merger—preserving Spirit’s competitive pricing pressure across the industry. As the DOJ argued The mere presence of Spirit on routes across the country forces other airlines to keep prices low to compete In May 2023, the Antitrust Division also won in court against American Airlines and JetBlue Airways for their Northeast Alliance partnership. Blocking this de-facto merger forced JetBlue and American to continue competing on price and prevented anticompetitive revenue-sharing incentives.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.