Six major domestic airlines have proposed alliances in 1998. These alliances are significant in scope but vary in extent, and their details are still emerging. In sum, the three alliances would control about 70 percent of domestic traffic, as measured by the number of passengers that board a plane- enplanements. Table I summarizes the size and characteristics of the proposed alliances. A key characteristic of two of the alliances is extensive code- sharing. According to officials at DOJ and DOT, code-sharing agreements are forms of corporate integration that fall between outright mergers, which involve equity ownership, and traditional arm's length agreements between airlines about such things as how they will handle tickets and baggage.
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