Then the allegation that we are "an illegal boycott against third party distributors" because it has "requirements for posting fare sales that cannot be sold" by others is not true? It is absolutely not true, and those who have made that allegation had absolutely no basis for making it. Our agreements contain no boycott against any distributors whatsoever, apollo and in fact affirmatively provide that no airline is precluded from utilizing any other distribution channel or offering any fare through any channel. The Department of Justice is presently reviewing all agreements, so there will be no question on this point. Do airlines today make all their fares available through inn all retail channels?

Airlines make nearly all their fares that are available to the general public available through all channels, from full fare down to their most heavily discounted fares. Any normal fare, made available months in advance in the normal way, is made available through all channels. Web fares, however, are different than normal fares. They typically constitute less than one tenth of 1% of the fares an airline offers, apollo and inn and are normally made available only a few days before flight time, and only on flights which have apollo an unusually high number of empty seats. Web fares thus are seldom inn available, are unpredictable, and are offered at very low prices.

Serious mischaracterizations have been made about us and the issue of who will have access to what fares. Some of those mischaracterizations have been based on simple ignorance, but others have clearly been part of a concerted effort by us competitors to use misinformation to prevent us from offering new competition to them and new choice to consumers. There is no agreement by which any airline would be precluded apollo from making any fare it chose available through any retail channel it chose. Airlines for 2 decades have been like any other business inn and apollo in America, in that they can decide what they want to charge and where they want to sell their product. And that remains true under the our agreements. Each and every airline, no matter what kind of participation inn it has, will be free to decide individually what fares it offers and whether or not to offer them through any other outlet.

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