<B> WashingtonWire</B>
<B>ASTA To DOT: Cuts Anticompetitive</B>
American Society of Travel Agents filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation that called for the department to find the latest reductions in travel agent commission levels to be an unfair method of competition designed to eliminate competition in the market for travel services. The petition accused 16 airlines of engaging "in a systematic plan to force travel agents out of business and add to their ever-growing monopoly in the skies by controlling the distribution of airline tickets and cutting off the traveling public from its sole source of unbiased information about fares and schedules." Named in the complaint were Air Canada, Air France, Alaska Airlines, American, American Trans Air, America West, Continental, Delta, Horizon, KLM, Midwest Express, Northwest, TACA International, TWA, United and US Airways.
"We are appealing to the secretary of transportation because he has the power to forbid anticompetitive practices even before they violate the Sherman Act. It's clear that these acts are being undertaken by the airlines with predatory intent to eliminate travel agents as viable competitors," said ASTA president and CEO Joe Galloway. The complaint said the airlines have adopted two tactics for eliminating travel agents as competitors: "the revenue squeeze," or the continued slashing of travel agency compensation levels, and the "cost squeeze," a series of measures that serve to drive up agency costs, ASTA said.
<A NAME="2"><B>U.S., France Pen Intermodal Agreement</B>
The United States and France have signed an intermodal agreement that will allow U.S. and French airlines more easily to offer passenger transportation involving combined air and surface travel, such as railroads and buses. United Airlines currently offers an intermodal program in cooperation with French National Railways for travel between Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Lyon. American Airlines also concluded a cooperative agreement with SNCF.
<A NAME="3"><B>U.S.-Chile Open Skies Pact Signed</B>
DOT secretary Rodney Slater, while on a trade mission to South America, on Oct. 21 signed the U.S.-Chile open skies accord. Implementation of the new agreement makes effective DOT's grant in September of antitrust immunity to the alliance of American Airlines and LanChile.
<A NAME="4"><B>FCC To Enhance Surface Transport Safety</B>
A decision by the Federal Communications Commission to make radio spectrum space available for intelligent transportation system (ITS) operations was praised by DOT deputy secretary Mort Downey, who said the ruling will result in enhanced safety and efficiency of the nation's surface transportation system.
The FCC allocated a range of 5850-5925 megahertz for Dedicated Short Range Communications between vehicles and electronic systems on the roadside, such as at toll booths or intersections. ITS activities could involve intersection collision avoidance; transit or emergency vehicle signal priority, which allows an ambulance to command a green light approaching an intersection; electronic parking payments; and commercial vehicle clearance and safety inspections that can be done at highway speeds instead of requiring trucks to pull off the road, Downey said.