An empirical analysis of global airline alliances: Cases in North Atlanticmarkets

This paper empirically investigates the effects on air fares, passenger vol ume, and consumer surplus of four major alliances in North Atlantic aviatio n markets. The four alliances are British Airways/USAir, Delta/Sabena/Swiss air, KLM/Northwest, and Lufthansa/United Airlines. We find that equilibrium passenger volume increased by some 36,000 passengers annually and equilibr ium air fares decreased by an average of $41 on the routes served by the al lying carriers, and that consumers were generally better off due to the all iances.