What effect will this have on ticket prices?

This is just my opinion and observations how corporations treat its customers.

1. If their mouth is moving, they are lieing.
2. Prices will go up. doesnt make a dif, if they say they can do it better/faster/cheaper. less competition to challenge will only enable them to not reduce fairs. Also, when companies/corporations say reduce cost they mean "increase profits". No benefit to the user/customer unless you are a shareholder.

im sure there are others, but i will let others add to the list.

happy trails.

It's a merger that just had to happen. American Airlines has had terrible employee and expense problems over the years, and they just never recovered from years under Bob Crandall's leadership. U.S. Air needed a partner so they could expand all over the U.S.

We do need all the competition we can get in the airline industry to keep down prices. We may ultimately see prices rise a little after the merger of operations and schedules.

We're seeing the recent Delta Airline merger take shape. Memphis Airport has gone from 300 flights a day in 2000, to about 75 flights post merger. Delta cut another 15 flights last week. Looks like if you die and are going to Heaven, you're first going to have to go through Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.

What really scares me is the growth of the Mideast airlines. The biggest group order for new airplanes is coming out of the "Oil Countries." We have sent them too much money already. They're getting ready to take over the international airline market, and that's not a good thing.

and that's not a good thing.

Why not? Doesn't the money make its way back to Boeing and Airbus? Doesn't that go some way to completing the circle?

United and American are getting bigger and bigger.

Both are based in Chicago.

I think those two "Midwest" airlines taking over the market are more of a concern than those from the Mideast.

Unfortunately most airline mergers have resulted in a new definition of "supply and demand". Quite often it now means "control the supply and demand whatever price we want".