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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 21, 1993                   TAG: 9304210059
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

AIRLINE LAWSUIT PANNED HOUSE PANEL: IT'S SENSELESS

In a bipartisan attack, members of a House Public Works aviation subcommittee said government lawyers seem more interested in legal theory than the likelihood that millions of travelers will face confusion and higher fares as a result of the case.

The Clinton administration "better take a message from this chair," said subcommittee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn. "This is the people's body."

Oberstar, noting that the airline industry lost $10 billion over the past three years and lower air fares are blamed by some for the red ink, questioned the government's common sense.

"If the airline industry had sustained greater losses over the past three years, more airlines would have disappeared from the scene and there would have been even less competition to benefit travelers," he said.

Travel agents and consumer groups regard the lawsuit as a disaster, he added. "Against this . . . we have only the intellectual theories of Justice Department lawyers."

But other than "jawboning" the administration, panel members offered no suggestion for legislative action to sidetrack the lawsuit.

In a public hearing that was largely a bashing of the Justice Department, groups representing consumers, airlines, travel agents and businesses attacked a proposed settlement of the suit by two of the eight airlines involved.

In the waning days of the Bush administration in December, the Justice Department concluded a three-year investigation by accusing the airlines of sharing planned fare changes through a jointly owned computerized reservation system. The government said that enabled the industry to increase fares whenever any one carrier decided to do so.

The Clinton administration is continuing the case.

United Airlines and USAir have agreed to settle the suit by not announcing in advance their fare increases or the expiration of discount fares. Six other airlines - American, Delta, Continental, TWA, Northwest and Alaska Airlines - are fighting the suit.

The departments of Justice and Transportation declined invitations to testify to the House subcommittee.

Rep. William Clinger of Pennsylvania, ranking Republican on the panel, said the proposed settlement "will seriously inhibit rational decisions by travelers."

Other critics of the proposed remedy said passengers, with no easy way to learn when fares are going up, will be forced to pay immediately when reserving a discount ticket. The current system that the government wants to outlaw has worked well for 50 years, they said.

The government's settlement with United and USAir is subject to approval by U.S. District Judge George Revercomb in Washington.