HARTFORD – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released a statement applauding the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx’s announcement today that the Department of Transportation would investigate possible price gouging by airlines following May’s deadly Amtrak derailment. Murphy first called for the investigation in a May 19th letter that expressed concern over reports of alarming price spikes and sought reassurances that they were not attempts by airlines to make money off of desperate travelers impacted by the tragedy. Murphy asked Assistant Attorney General William J. Baer of the U.S. Department of Justice and Chairwoman Edith Ramirez of the Federal Trade Commission to fully exercise the enforcement powers vested in their agencies if the investigation reveals that these price increases were in fact efforts by the airlines to unfairly profit off the thousands of travelers whose travel plans were altered as a result of the derailment.

“I applaud Secretary Foxx for answering my call to investigate suspicious airline price hikes after this year’s tragic Amtrak derailment. As I said at the time, if the price increases were an effort to profit from desperate travelers impacted by this tragedy, it’s simply unacceptable. I will pay close attention to the results of this investigation and ensure companies are held accountable if any wrongdoing occurred,” Murphy said.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Foxx told reporters today, “We have opened an investigation into [possible] price-gouging following the tragic accident of Train 188 in the Philadelphia area.” Fox added, “The letter is going out today. We expect within a reasonable time we will have that information back and we will go where the information takes us. … Our review shows that following the accident, there were higher prices in that corridor than you would normally expect and our investigation is into whether there were unfair practices involved in setting practices at that time.” Letters were sent to Delta, American, United, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.

The full text of the letter Murphy sent on May 19th is below:

Mr. William J. Baer                                                 Ms. Edith Ramirez
Assistant Attorney General                                        Chairwoman
U.S. Department of Justice                                       Federal Trade Commission
Antitrust Division                                                    600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW                                   Washington, D.C. 20580
Washington, D.C. 20530

Mr. Baer and Ms. Ramirez,

As leaders at agencies tasked with protecting consumers and promoting economic competition, I wanted to bring to your attention reports of alarming price trends in airfares along the Northeast Corridor in the wake of the fatal derailment of a New York-bound Amtrak train last Tuesday. I respectfully ask that you investigate these price spikes to ensure that they were aberrations and not evidence of attempts by airlines to manipulate the prices to unfairly target the thousands of travelers whose travel plans were altered as a result of the derailment.

According to a May 14, 2015, article in The New York Times, certain flights were priced significantly higher than usual, even when compared to same day flights. For example, the article cited a flight from La Guardia Airport to Washington, D.C. that was priced at the staggering amount of $2,309. This evidence, as well as anecdotal evidence from my constituents, raises troubling questions about possible market distortions at play. If this drastic and sudden increase in ticket prices is an effort to make money from desperate travelers impacted by this tragedy, you should fully exercise the enforcement powers vested in your agencies.

Some companies self-corrected after I initially expressed concern last Friday. I was glad to see that after their $2,300 flight raised eyebrows, Delta Airlines announced that it would make every effort to accommodate passengers affected by the service outage along Amtrak’s lines in the northeast. The carrier added seats on its shuttle flights between major east coast cities, honored existing Amtrak tickets, waived change fees and offered discounted one-way fares. Any actions companies took to aid struggling travelers after this tragedy deserve to be applauded.

Like you, I share a profound interest in protecting consumers, and trust that you will thoroughly and promptly investigate this matter. Thank you for your consideration of my request.


Sincerely,


Christopher S. Murphy