Study: Major U.S. airlines restricting fare information

There's been some public relations turbulence in the nation's airline industry, following claims in a recent report that some air carriers are restricting access to their airfare and route information -- actions that could end up costing air passengers billions of dollars more in airfare costs.

The economic impact study, released last week by the Travel Technology Association and a group of travel industry groups, notes that about 44 percent of consumers who search the internet for airfares either shop via online travel agencies (OTAs) like Orbitz, Priceline or Expedia -- or through a "metasearch" travel sites like Kayak, TripAdvisor or Google Flights.

Meanwhile, the study notes, the U.S. airline industry has become "highly concentrated," with the four largest U.S. airlines -- Delta, American, United and Southwest -- controlling around 80 percent of domestic passenger traffic.

And now, according to the study, the airlines are "engaging in efforts to prevent metasearch sites from displaying airline information," while prohibiting the OTAs from providing airline data to the metasearch sites.

"At a time when independent, transparent comparison shopping is most needed, some airlines are attempting to restrict access to their fare and schedule information, reduce the ability of consumers to easily compare prices, and drive travelers to their own websites, which do not offer price comparisons with other airlines," Dr. Fiona Schott Morton, the study's author and a professor of economics at Yale University, said in a press statement.

The study adds that, along with reducing competition and creating obstacles for new or smaller airlines, the restriction of access to flight information by the airlines could result in their raising ticket prices by more than 11 percent for most passengers, or an average $30 per ticket increase.

"The lack of access to transparent, comparable airfare information would be costly," it continues. "223 million American leisure and unmanaged business travelers would pay $6.7 billion more in airfares, and it may result in up to 41 million passengers annually choosing not to fly because of higher ticket prices."

The airlines were quick to fight back against the allegations. A spokesman for Delta (DAL) said the airline will continue its partnership with a limited group of online retailers "who we believe effectively support our efforts to provide a robust shopping experience."

"Delta," he continued, "reserves the right to determine who it does business with and where and how its content is displayed."

And the airline trade group Airlines for America (A4A) questioned the report's findings.

"Consumers in other sectors of our nation's economy simply do not have the variety of and details about the services that they are interested in that airline customers have access to," A4A spokeswoman Victoria Day told TravelWeekly.com.

"The notion that the U.S. airline industry, which enplanes over 700 million passengers a year, is going to allow the various distribution channels that facilitate those customers' purchases of its services to dry up is nonsensical," she added.