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Mergers have been taking off the last two years. first, it was delta and northwest and continental and united and today, southwest says it s buying airtran. less competition often means higher prices, right? it depends who you ask. fares have been on the rise this year. some expect them to go up. for one, it s because oil prices are still high and oil prices are expected to keep going higher as the economy recovers as it improves and there s more demand for oil. also, airlines are trying to make up for a slowdown in air travel. but the other side of the coin, others say the deal could wind up putting pressure on those main line carriers to cut their prices. since the recession, discounters have become major players in the airline business and southwest carries more travelers than any ....
It s built mostly with sand. and hundreds of homes in minnesota and south dakota are also underwater. parts of south dakota are experiencing their worst flooding in 15 years. desperate situation out there. well, moments ago, southwest announcing it is buying its rival air tran. the cost $1.4 billion. so this will allow southwest to operate out of 100 airports and serve more than 100 million passengers. we re going back to that whole thing where it s a monopoly, right, of airlines? that wouldn t be good. the opposition to venezuelan president hugo chavez is growing in his own country. the weekend parliamentary elections, chavez s allies want 96 seats. yes, 96 seats for the opposition party. they want 61 seats overall. this sends chavez s 2/3 party majority that allowed him to pass controversial legislation unopposed. maybe that s why he didn t come to the united nations big party. that s one theory. ....
Be a special customer. guest: american recently charged a fee, of course are but for $50 you can get confirmed, stand by, and change your flight as many times as you want and they beltway that. shepard: that sounds valid. tell us of the rest of the fees and thousand they add up for the airlines. guest: last year, all fees combined for domestic flights under $8 billion; there year close to $9 billion. fees are not going to go away. you have southwest acquiring air trap, and southwest does not have bag fees or change fees so we have one airline soon to have no fees. shepard: that is the most anding merger for me recently. what has happened in the past air tran has followed delta s route. if you want to go from new york to miami and do not want to pay as much as delta you can go on air tran if you can deal with ....
They are going to buy the small are rival, air tran for $1.4 billion. and what this does is gives southwest a shot at the east coast, specifically, atlanta and smaller marks it does not serve. because you are going through atlanta now you can get into new york and boston and south florida through atlanta and that means big money for this carrier. analysts say the deal could lead to an increase in the price of tickets because the leading low cost carriers are no longer competing. this deal comes a week after shareholders approve a messager between united and continental making the largest early in all the world. usa today newspaper studying air fares and reports what you already knew: we pay a lot more to fly. a whole lot more. the newspaper analyzed ticket prices from june and we are paying 50 percent more in ....
Other u.s. airline, so it could become the trend setter. the deal will mean fewer fees. southwest currently doesn t charge for your first two checked bags. airtran does charge for the first checked bag. after the deal closes, southwest fee structure will take over. at least that s what we know now. so, all right, when can we expect to see the changes permanently? the carriers will operate separately until the deal closes next year, so you may not see anything change until next year. and wall street is cheering the deal today. they like mergers news. it s good for the economy. right now, shares of airtran are up 60% because shareholders are getting a big premium over friday s price. southwest shares are up about 4%. we ll see how they come out as well. as for the dow industrials, they ve been on a tear lately, ....