Opinion: America’s unfriendly skies
By Jonathan Grella, U.S. News & World Report
The ugly viral video incident that has sent United Airlines’ reputation and stock price into a tailspin has generated calls to boycott the airline – “delete the app,” to employ contemporary parlance.
But it’s tough to delete the app when it’s the only app in town. Lack of consumer choice in air travel makes it near impossible to just pick another airline in many U.S. markets.
A decade ago, nine airlines competed fiercely to win traveler loyalty. Today, following a wave of mergers and consolidations, only four airlines control almost 80 percent of all available domestic capacity in the U.S.