Does airline merger violate antitrust law?
Last month we heard that Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines plan to merge. The media portrayed this as a done deal, showing photos of the two CEOs of the airlines along with Greg Brenneman, the new boss of the new monopoly. This was followed by some letters to the editor pointing out that the merger would hurt both the employees of these airlines and the public who will be forced to pay higher airfares. What is missing from this discussion is the position of our supposed protectors of the public interest: State Attorney General Earl Anzai and the federal Justice Department. I’m no expert on antitrust law, but it doesn’t take an expert to read Section 480-7 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, which prohibits any merger that will “substantially … lessen competition or … tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce in any section of the State.” There’s no question that this merger will violate this law, so why haven’t we heard of any action by Anzai or by our federal agencies to st
