What the FTC Wants to Know About How Airlines Set Fares

Airline pricing is once again under scrutiny. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and JetBlue to provide data on how they set fares, as part of a study of whether companies use personal information to set prices. The agency wants details on the companies’ pricing methods. The companies have 45 days to respond. “We intend to scrutinize the opaque methodology that some companies in these industries may be using to determine how much consumers pay or how much gig workers are paid for the same product or service,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. The FTC sent similar orders to Lyft, DoorDash, Uber, Instacart, Target and Walmart, seeking data on pricing and, for the gig companies, on worker pay. What's the difference between dynamic pricing and surveillance pricing? Airlines have long used “dynamic pricing,” which moves fares up a