FTC Probes Airline Pricing as Fuel Shock Forces Alaska Air Job Cuts

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered three of the largest US airlines to explain how they set fares. The agency is opening a study into whether carriers use customers’ personal data to charge different prices for the same seat.

Delta Air Lines Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. were among nine companies that received orders on Wednesday. The others were Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., DoorDash Inc., Instacart, Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. Each has 45 days to respond. The commission said the study would “assess whether the pricing for a ticket, ride share, food delivery or other product or service varies” between customers.

The inquiry uses the FTC’s study powers and doesn’t allege wrongdoing. Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the agency would scrutinize the “opaque methodology” companies may use. The commission is seeking data on loyalty programs, customer segmentation and pricing tools going back to 2023.

Delta and JetBlue have both said they don’t use personal data to set individual fares. Delta told lawmakers last year that it doesn’t share personal information with its artificial-intelligence pricing vendor.

Alaska Air Group Inc., meanwhile, is cutting about 200 management and other non-frontline jobs as soaring fuel costs threaten an annual loss. “We could lose as much as $700 million this year,” Chief Executive Officer Ben Minicucci told employees on Friday. He called it what would be the company’s “first adjusted pretax loss outside of the pandemic since 2003.”

The cuts include 48 positions in Hawaii, where Alaska has been integrating Hawaiian Airlines since buying the carrier in 2024. Pilots, flight attendants and airport staff aren’t affected. Alaska paid 3.94 dollars a gallon for fuel in the third quarter, up from 2.51 dollars a year earlier. It expects about 1.8 billion dollars in extra fuel costs this year compared with its original plan.