Washington, D.C. — This afternoon at 2:30pm EST, William J. McGee, Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, will testify in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights for a hearing on “Examining Competition in America’s Skies.” The hearing will examine how decades of airline consolidation and lax antitrust enforcement have harmed passengers, workers, and communities across the country — and what Congress can do to reinvigorate competition.

“The airline industry I began working in 40 years ago no longer exists, and by most measures passengers and entire communities nationwide are worse off,” says McGee in his written testimony. “U.S. airlines are more concentrated than ever due to decades of lax antitrust enforcement leading to consolidation, and the failed experiment of airline deregulation. As a result, consumers have fewer choices for carriers, there is little competition on individual routes, and there is a historic drought of market entry by new airlines… It is long past time for Congress to step in to fix flying and reinvigorate competition in the airline industry.”

McGee’s testimony details how consolidation by the “Big Four” airlines has decimated service in major cities, stranded small and rural communities, and degraded passenger experiences nationwide. He will urge lawmakers to adopt sensible regulation, ensure airport access for new entrants, empower states to protect consumers, and reinstate fair competition measures to curb the outsized power of dominant airlines.

“We’re at an inflection point,” McGee will add in his oral testimony. “Congress needs to investigate the failures of deregulation – and, just as it did 50 years ago, hear from the public, not just airline executives and their lobbyists. Your constituents will tell you the truth. Flying today is a miserable experience. It wasn’t always this way. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Watch the hearing live this afternoon here.

Read McGee’s written testimony in advance here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.