Consumer advocates worry the decision to green-light another big airline merger will mean higher prices before long, even though upstart airlines will get more access to busy airports near Washington D.C. and New York as part of the deal. In the short term, the industry is waiting for the sale of takeoff and landing slots by the merging US Airways Group Inc and AMR Corp's American Airlines, a process that will take several months and be overseen by the Department of Justice.The largest airlines are expected to be barred from bidding, leaving the field open to upstarts such as JetBlue, Allegiant and Spirit, if they chose to participate.Despite this, fliers will ultimately face higher airfares after the industry shrinks to just three major carriers, said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, which tracks airfares."In the past decade, we've seen the industry transformed from one that boasted eight large airlines to a mere four. With the latest merger, it drops to three," Seaney said. "It is likely we'll be sitting around in 2020 saying, 'I wish we still had eight carriers.'"
US Airways Group, Inc. operates and owns passenger and freight airline carrier. Shares of LCC fell by 0.89% or $-0.21/share to $23.31. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $11.52 and as high as $25.49. On average, 7628530 shares of LCC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 20069728.
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