{"id":1635838,"date":"2022-09-07T19:50:46","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T23:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1635838"},"modified":"2022-09-07T19:51:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T23:51:00","slug":"u-s-must-do-more-to-block-harmful-airline-mergers-anti-monopoly-group-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-must-do-more-to-block-harmful-airline-mergers-anti-monopoly-group-says\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. must do more to block harmful airline mergers, anti-monopoly group says"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-must-do-more-to-block-harmful-airline-mergers-anti-monopoly-group-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1635838&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) \u2013     The U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT) must step up efforts to stop anti-competitive U.S. airline mergers and hold carriers accountable for flight cancellations and poor customer service, an influential Washington-based think-thank said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The American Economic Liberties Project called for increased enforcement in a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.<\/p>\n<p>The group, led by Sarah Miller, has been instrumental in making antitrust enforcement a mainstream issue in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>USDOT has not acted sufficiently on President Joe Biden\u2019s executive order last year to address competition across industries and has \u201crefused to bring even a single dollar of fines against any U.S. airlines,\u201d the group said in the letter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe agency\u2019s lax regulatory approach has allowed and encouraged airlines to continue destabilizing the air travel industry,\u201d the letter said. \u201cThe DOT has stood by as airlines excessively cancel flights, sell tickets for phantom flights, and cheat passengers out of required cash refund.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Buttigieg told Reuters last month the U.S. approach to regulating airlines and ensuring passengers are treated properly needs improvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been due for a refresh on a lot of our rules toward airlines and when you get it right, the entire system is better off \u2013 certainly passengers are better off,\u201d Buttigieg said. <\/p>\n<p>The U.S. government has completed 10 airline investigations and is pursuing enforcement actions, Buttigieg noted. The agency also wants to codify its longstanding interpretation that failing to provide refunds when an airline cancels or significantly changes a U.S. flight constitutes an unfair practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re untying our own hands with the update on unfair and deceptive practices,\u201d he said.    <\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Nandita Bose and David Shepardson in Washington)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?attachment_id=2746295\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI8610G-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI8610G-VIEWIMAGE\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) \u2013 The U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT) must step up efforts to stop anti-competitive U.S. airline mergers and hold carriers accountable for flight cancellations and poor customer service, an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}