FareCompare licenses air fare data from more than 500 airlines via the Airline Tariff Publishing Company, which consolidates and distributes airline fares worldwide.
"The department's antitrust division is investigating the joint venture announced by certain major United States carriers to distribute airline tickets," a Justice Department spokeswoman, Gina Talamona, said.
In the latest salvo in its war with Orbitz, the fast-growing new online travel agency, Southwest Airlines has withdrawn its flight information from the Airline Tariff Publishing Company, which distributes airline schedule and fare information.
That's in part because every flight began with the crew giving the passengers preflight instructions in case of an emergency, and the airline distributing those pocket guides.
Last month's Guardian circulation also represented a 6.37% decline on August 2008, when 14,449 bulks were distributed to airlines, hotels and trains.
Long term, critics have said, the potential downside is that Orbitz, owned by airlines distributing their own products at lower costs than competitors like Sabre, will achieve enough market domination to be able to be in a position to set prices.
Banks are distributing record numbers of airline co-branded credit cards where the top tier segment spend heavily, while a substantial proportion of such rewards cards now propagate through the payment networks.
The department is also distributing $2.4 billion to the airlines, which had sought the aid as reimbursement for their losses because of the war and continuing terrorist threats to the industry.
Consolidate your travel onto one carrier or alliance rather than distributing it among several airlines.
But he objected to the industry's request to have the federal aid distributed to each airline according to its capacity, the formula now contained in both the proposed bills.
