Indiana University Researchers say despite common belief, airline mergers do not cause delays or decrease overall airline service quality.
The team analyzed performance at major airlines that merged since 2000.
Chairperson of Business Economics and Public Policy at the IU Kelley School of Business Jeff Prince says the results are unexpected.
"At least in terms of on-time performance, this wave of mergers that we saw since 2000 in the airlines doesn't seem to have degraded quality in that dimension," Prince says. "If anything it seems to have, in a small way, gotten better."
Prince worked with Daniel Simon, associate professor in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, to analyze on-time performance for five major airline mergers since 2000, using three years of data prior to each merger and up to five years of data afterword.
Prince says public perception is that merging airlines means more flight delays and lost luggage, but the research shows in the long run, mergers actually seemed to help improve on-time performance.
Prince says this is likely because pooling resources gives airlines the ability to deal with issues more efficiently.