The US department of transportation says US airlines were not guilty of price gouging immediately after the 2015 Philadelphia Amtrak crash.
The federal agency investigated claims that fares sharply increased for flights on American, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue and United after the crash which killed eight people and shut down rail travel in the region for days.
DOT found no ‘unfair manipulation’ of airfares by the carriers
"Based on this analysis, the enforcement office finds that, although fares did increase on many routes in the aftermath of the derailment, fares also decreased on some routes," DOT assistant general counsel Blane A. Workie wrote in a communication to the airlines.
"More importantly, there was no evidence of unfair manipulation of airfares or capacity, nor evidence of unconscionable increases in fares beyond normal pricing levels."
American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said: "We are gratified by the decision and we were confident that there would be no finding on wrongdoing by American."
