An empirical research on the relationship between mergers and low-cost carriers in the airline industry

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25885114
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Commerce
• Research Institution: Fukuyama Heisei University
• Principal Investigator: ASAHI Ryota 福山平成大学, 経営学部, 講師 (10712359)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 合併 / 航空産業 / 低費用航空会社

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research empirically studies the change of pricing behaviors of merging airlines, rival full service carriers (FSCs) and rival low cost carriers (LCCs) after the merger. We analyzed two mergers: US Airways and America West Airlines (2005) and Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines (2008).
Empirical analyses indicate that US Airways tended to increase airfares in many routes after the merger, that the impact of merger on pricing behaviors of merging airlines and rivals(FSCs and LCCs) may depend on a market environment, i.e whether there are LCCs in routes, characteristics of merging airlines. Also the impact of merger on pricing behaviors of LCCs may change depanding up the network size of LCCs.

Free Research Field

経営戦略