Class-Action Suit Contends 7 U.S. Airlines Fixed Prices

A federal judge in Atlanta will hear a consolidated lawsuit alleging collusion and price fixing by some of the nation’s major airlines and their computerized fare network.

Thirty-one claims filed nationwide were consolidated Friday in the court of U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob. The lawsuit alleges that the airlines use computers to signal fare changes to each other, agree on price increases and threaten fare cuts.

As a result of the alleged collusion, the suit charges that passengers are forced to pay artificially high ticket prices.

The defendants are USAir, Northwest, Delta, Continental, United, TWA and American airlines and a Washington-based computer clearinghouse, Airline Tariff Publishing Co.

A panel of federal judges decided that Atlanta was most accessible to all parties in the suit.

If Shoob certifies the suit as a class action, a decision expected early next year, the plaintiffs could number in the millions. Customers who purchased a plane ticket since 1987 could potentially be a party to the suit.

“In 1988, 150 million tickets were sold, so that would give you a rough idea of the possible magnitude of this case,” said W. Pitts Carr, the Atlanta attorney who filed the first suit here last July. “There are literally tens of millions of people or companies who are potential class members.”

The defendants deny the charges.

“Delta denies totally the allegations . . . concerning our participation in any conspiracy to fix prices,” said Edward B. Krugman, one of the airline’s attorneys.

The suit seeks undetermined damages that could be tripled under federal antitrust laws. It also asks that the airlines be restrained from further violation of antitrust laws and that the computer network be “restructured so as to discourage future collusion among airlines.”