If you ever watch the news or try to keep up with the airline industry, you’ve probably heard it all when it comes to airline mergers.  From Northwest merging with Delta to other airline rumors, it seems as if there will only be one airline in the future.  Some believe that an airline merger will help you while others believe it can harm you.  In the long run, a merger doesn’t necessarily mean a good thing.  In fact, it hurts you and I’ll explain why.

Higher Fares – The oil prices are already killing the airline industry and any other industry for that matter that uses oil.  When an airline company merges, the first thing the company looks at is how they can cut costs in particular areas.  The first area they generally target are the flight paths.  They generally take away flight paths reducing the supply.  When there’s a high demand and a lower supply rate, the prices rise.

Crowded Planes – Just when you thought an airplane couldn’t fit more people.  When an airline cuts back on flight paths, they still use the same planes but this means they need to cram more people on the plane.  This either means they make altercations to the plane and/or just simply adding more people to the plane.  The next time you fly on a merged plane, notice how crowded the plane is.

Flight Paths Disappear – I’ve already mentioned twice in this post but you’ll soon realize that the companies will start to cut back on paths that may not be making the company money.  If you’re a big fan of a particular airline, you may find that they cut out the flight path completely which means you’ll have to fly a new airline.

Technical Glitches – When an airline mergers, this means that you’ll need to combine two completely different computer systems.  This system generally takes care of reservations and everything service related.  People have found in the past that when an airline merged, they found that they had troubles with luggage, reservations, and everything else dealt with the computer.  Even though these glitches only last a few months, it’s still something to look out for.