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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Mugged by the Gang of Five
Cheap Charlie · April 30, 2002

If a mugging like this was happening on the streets of LA or in Harlem or on the south side of Chicago there would be police cars arriving with sirens screaming and lights flashing. News photographers would be on the scene and images of the brutal beating would be beamed across the country.

Right before our eyes, the Gang of Five, the controlling airline cartel in the country, is beating up a weak former gang member who has dared to try to leave the gang. The police are nowhere to be seen. TV photographers are nowhere to be seen.

The brutish members of The Gang of Five - American Airlines, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines - claim that this is all about competition. The truth is - the Gang of Five is involved in the most basic gang discipline.

America West, once a fledgling member of the Gang, is attempting to break away from the Gang of Five. Following the successful and profitable airfare pricing model of Southwest Airlines, America West has instituted simple, rational, understandable, reasonable and affordable airfares with no Saturday night stays requirements on their routes.

The Gang of Five will have none of it. They are committed to keeping the airline cartel in line. Any gang member that deviates will be severely punished.

While crying that they need to make more money and attempting twice to raise prices by $20 a ticket, the airlines at the same time are slashing their fares to the America West hub airports of Phoenix, Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio. In fact, the majors are undercutting the America West fares by up to $500 to make sure the upstart is taught a good lesson or is forced out of business. For one additional corporate kick in the teeth, Continental Airlines severed their code-sharing and frequent flyer agreements.

We all know that once America West is gone or acquiesces to gang rules, the Gang of Five will jack up their fares in an instant.

This, to my understanding, is clearly illegal, collusive and predatory pricing. I have heard that for years the federal government has had problems proving predatory pricing and even defining it; but these fare-slashing actions are the corporate equivalent of a gang switchblade attack. These cutthroat, cut-rate tactics against America West, while the Gang of Five cry poverty, seem to be a classic definition of predatory pricing.

Is our government asleep? Where is the congressional outrage? Where is the FAA? Where is the FTC? What will it take to wake them up?

The Gang of Five is staggering under gross mismanagement, indecipherable airfares and abysmal customer service. They are bleeding money and don't know where to turn. Their only action, like that of any wounded beast, is to strike out at the closest perceived enemy.

Last month, it was travel agents that got the ax. JetBlue has been targeted by American Airlines and United Airlines which while claiming the need to cut capacity, curiously are adding flights to compete directly with JetBlue.

This month, America West is taking the unrelenting beating.

When is the Gang of Five going to learn that simple, rational, understandable, reasonable and affordable airfares with no Saturday night stay requirements and a clear commission structure are not a threat, but the road to their survival as honest businesses.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at leocha@aol.com or access his Web site.