DOT: Airlines didn't gouge passengers after Amtrak crash

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Department has dropped its investigation of major airlines for possible price gouging in the Northeast after an Amtrak derailment by finding “no evidence of unfair manipulation of airfares or capacity.”

The fatal Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May 2015 disrupted rail traffic for days along the busy Northeast corridor. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened the investigation into possible price gouging by airlines in July 2015, saying that taking advantage of stranded rail passengers during a crisis would be unacceptable.

But the airlines targeted – American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and United – denied charging unfair ticket prices. American and Delta each said at the time they added capacity – more flights and larger planes – after the train crash.

Blane Workie, assistant general counsel for aviation enforcement, told the airlines by email Wednesday that the investigation analyzed 5,000 pages of data from the airlines about 76 flight segments and “a large amount of information” provided by the carriers about ticket pricing.

The department reviewed routes from Washington's Dulles and Ronald Reagan George Washington National, Baltimore-Washington International, Philadelphia, New York area's Newark, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, Long Island MacArthur, Bradley in Connecticut,  T.F. Green in Rhode Island and Boston airports. The investigation compared prices in the time span from April 28 to May 11 before the crash with prices from May 12 to 26 after the crash.

But the department concluded that no violation of unfair or deceptive pricing occurred, Workie said.

“Based on this analysis, the Enforcement Office finds that, although fares did increase on many routes in the aftermath of the derailment, fares also decreased on some routes,” Workie said. “More importantly, there was no evidence of unfair manipulation of airfares or capacity, nor evidence of unconscionable increases in fares beyond normal pricing levels, in the aftermath of the derailment.”

Airlines welcomed the vindication.

“We are gratified by the decision and we were confident that there would be no finding on wrongdoing by American,” Matt Miller, a spokesman for American Airlines, said Thursday.

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