On Monday, when the City Council's transportation committee held a hearing concerning the new decal rules, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents yellow-taxi operators, submitted testimony arguing in part that fare information should be displayed because "rate of fare decals have been a ubiquitous feature of the iconic New York City taxicab for decades".
Because of T.W.A., fares in many Caribbean markets have fallen, airline experts said.
Salman Shaikh, the director of the Brookings Doha Centre said: "This is actually more important than the Manaf Tlass defection because of where Fares comes from and his tribal connections.
Far from benefiting consumers, the department now states flatly, "increasing consolidation among large airlines has hurt passengers" because of higher fares, new fees and add-on costs, reduced service and fewer amenities.
They said, however, that the benefit to American passengers would be about $300 million a year, because of lower fares and better service, and that American carriers would see an additional $1 billion in revenues.
Like the rest of the industry, it's hurting because of lower fares, declining passenger yields and high fuel costs.
But what is interesting here is because of the fares freeze the amount of passenger income gained from that is not as high as it would have been if fares had been pegged to inflation (or inflation plus 1%).
It argues bus and rail passengers are being hit far harder than motorists because of the soaring cost of fares.
American Express said yesterday that the typical domestic business fare in July -- $1,078 round trip -- was 11percentt higher than July 1999, partly because of airline fare increases earlier this year.
