{"id":143752,"date":"2023-09-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/?p=143752"},"modified":"2023-09-14T23:00:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T23:00:45","slug":"delta-united-must-face-class-action-over-airfares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2023\/09\/delta-united-must-face-class-action-over-airfares.html","title":{"rendered":"Delta, United must face class action over airfares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Delta Air Lines and United Airlines<\/strong> were ordered by a federal judge to face a consumer antitrust class action accusing major U.S. carriers of conspiring to drive up domestic airfares by reducing the number of available seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a decision on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., said passengers offered a &#8220;fair amount&#8221; or circumstantial evidence of a conspiracy to reduce seating capacity in order to boost profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Defendants engaged admittedly and openly in the practice of capacity discipline on domestic flights, with the effect that diminished capacity resulted in higher industry profits,&#8221; Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a 70-page decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u2192 <a href=\"https:\/en\/2023\/08\/delta-to-launch-new-service-between-tokyo-haneda-and-honolulu.html\">Delta to launch new service between Tokyo-Haneda and Honolulu<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two other defendants, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, previously settled for a respective $45 million and $15 million. Neither admitted wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lawsuit began in 2015 after the U.S. Department of Justice started investigating airlines for potential anticompetitive practices, and continued even though no charges were brought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Passengers said that a conspiracy beginning in 2009 to enforce what the carriers called &#8220;capacity discipline&#8221; artificially inflated ticket prices and reduced flight choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Delta and United called their seating capacity reductions a legitimate response to reduced demand, rising fuel prices and the 2008 global financial crisis. United called it &#8220;perfectly rational Economics 101.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both carriers went through bankruptcy not long before the purported conspiracy began, with United emerging in 2006 and Delta emerging in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Delta on Wednesday said it would continue defending against the lawsuit, and has &#8220;always independently determined its capacity based on market demand.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The American and Southwest settlements won final court approval in 2019. Payouts will not begin until claims against Delta and United are resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/delta-united-must-face-class-action-over-us-airfares-2023-09-13\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"related-topics\">Related Topics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-post-grid uagb-post-grid  uagb-post__image-position-top uagb-post__image-enabled uagb-block-b0c86cbc     uagb-post__items uagb-post__columns-2 is-grid uagb-post__columns-tablet-2 uagb-post__columns-mobile-1 uagb-post__equal-height\" data-total=\"517\" style=\"\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"uagb-post__inner-wrap\">\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='uagb-post__image'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/05\/singapore-airlines-to-return-to-madrid-and-increase-european-frequencies.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"bookmark noopener 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src=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ITA-Airways-Vuelo-a-Houston.webp\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ITA-Airways-Vuelo-a-Houston.webp 800w, https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ITA-Airways-Vuelo-a-Houston-300x150.webp 300w, https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ITA-Airways-Vuelo-a-Houston-768x384.webp 768w, https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ITA-Airways-Vuelo-a-Houston-380x190.webp 380w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"uagb-post__title uagb-post__text\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/05\/ita-airways-launches-direct-flights-between-rome-and-houston.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">ITA Airways Launches Direct Flights Between Rome and Houston<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='uagb-post__text uagb-post-grid-byline'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"uagb-post__text uagb-post__cta wp-block-button\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"wp-block-button__link uagb-text-link\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/05\/ita-airways-launches-direct-flights-between-rome-and-houston.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Read More<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were ordered by a federal judge to face a consumer antitrust class&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":100178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[230,197,239,344,221],"class_list":{"0":"post-143752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-airlines","8":"tag-airline","9":"tag-airlines","10":"tag-delta-air-lines-2","11":"tag-united-airlines-2","12":"tag-usa"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-300x150.jpg",300,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-768x384.jpg",768,384,true],"large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"pk-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",80,40,false],"pk-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",300,150,false],"csco-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-80x80.jpg",80,80,true],"csco-intermediate":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"csco-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-380x220.jpg",380,220,true],"csco-thumbnail-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"csco-thumbnail-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-380x190.jpg",380,190,true],"csco-medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-medium-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines-560x336.jpg",560,336,true],"csco-medium-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-extra-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Delta-United-Airlines.jpg",800,400,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Redacci\u00f3n - Aviaci\u00f3n al D\u00eda","author_link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/author\/aad"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were ordered by a federal judge to face a consumer antitrust class&hellip;","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143753,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143752\/revisions\/143753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}