The airline industry needs some competition

I had the opportunity to fly quite a bit this past summer, with a couple trips to New York and Boston, but mostly several trips to San Francisco to visit my girlfriend in Berkeley, California.

The exact itinerary of my treks out West was never the same across all the trips, and I got to experience a number of different airlines. Unfortunately, the entire process of searching for flights, deals and the quickest route from point A to B can be frustrating. Prices seem to oscillate up and down by the minute, airlines seem to enjoy tacking on additional charges right as you hit “Proceed to Checkout,” and there’s nothing worse than settling on a ticket only to find a cheaper one the next day. Let’s also not forget the actual stress of simply traveling by air.

Flying has been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mother was a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, and my father traveled excessively for his job. Combine these two factors and you get a lot of SkyMiles and thus the ability to take the family on many trips. I am very grateful to have been able to fly so much growing up, but everything changes when you are the one paying for your flights.

The idea of me being more frugal and price-conscious once funds started coming out of my own pocket is not shocking, and it has allowed me to evaluate the entire process from a different perspective.

The airline industry appears to be a hectic mess of inconsistent pricing and incessant delays, but I am starting to wonder if it is actually over-regulated. Current laws in the U.S. require any and every flight between two domestic locations be serviced by a domestically owned airline. This limits everyone’s choices to Delta, American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and a few others. There’s a total of 16 major carriers in the U.S., which sounds like a healthy number of airlines, but eliminating this archaic law could make the industry so much better for flyers.

When I scoured the internet for the best priced flight from Orlando to San Francisco, I noticed, overall, the round-trip prices did not vary significantly across the major airlines. If I got it far enough in advance, it was going to be about $300 to $400 round-trip regardless. That type of predictability might seem nice, but I would love for it to be lower, if possible. If the U.S. allowed competition from internationally owned airlines on its domestic flights, elementary-level economics would stroll in and the beauties of a free market would begin to blossom.

Increased competition among airlines would bring about the most efficient price and quantity of domestic flights. Domestic airlines would have to buckle down and improve their services, lower their prices or even both. The result would be more — and better quality and/or priced — options for consumers.

“Foreign airline competition and capital investment in U.S. airlines could quickly improve passenger service, lower fares, result in new start-up airlines, and relieve overcrowding,” said Paul Hudson, the president of the nonprofit airline consumer organization FlyersRights.org.

Flying itself is a stressful experience, but the act of arranging and purchasing tickets should not be, especially given the number of airlines currently operating. The current law only allowing domestic airlines to service domestic flights is an outdated, protectionist policy that is only hurting flyers by restricting the market. The airline industry is international by nature, and I feel if any industry needs to protect domestic producers, it’s not this one.

Andrew Hall is a UF management senior. His column appears on Fridays.