AIRLINES ACCUSED OF PRICE-SHARING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993                   TAG: 9302170075
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
AIRLINES ACCUSED OF PRICE-SHARING
A federal antitrust suit that accuses airlines of illegally sharing ticket price information could lead to millions of extra dollars in air fares, a travel agents' group said Tuesday.
"As hard as it is to believe, if the Department of Justice has its way, it might become a crime for an airline or travel agent to inform customers as to when air fares will be increased," said Earlene Causey, head of the American Society of Travel Agents.
The Justice Department in December charged in a civil antitrust case that eight major airlines had fixed fares in the $40 billion domestic passenger business.
The lawsuit said the airlines shared planned fare changes through a computer system, agreeing to raise specific fares and eliminating some discounts between specific cities.
United and USAir agreed to settle the suit by dropping practices said to be anti-competitive. Six other airlines - American, Delta, Northwest, Continental, TWA and Alaska - dispute the charges.
"Tens of million of dollars may be a gross underestimate," said Paul Ruden, head of the agents' group's legal department.
If the Justice Department is successful, he said, consumers no longer could be told the date of a coming fare increase or when promotional fares would end unless the airline advertised the information.
The cost of advertising would make that a prohibitive expense for financially strapped airlines, which have lost about $8 billion in the past three years, the group said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB