In 2013, American Airlines merged with US Airways creating the largest airline in the world. This thesis analyzes this merger's effect on domestic airline ticket pricing using the Department of Transportation's 10% ticket sample. This analysis focuses on the role of competition, and shows that the merged airline was able raise their fares. In addition, legacy carrier were able to rose the price when merged companies did not play a role (as either an incumbent or a potential entrant). In markets

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... where the merged companies did play a role, fares for these legacy carriers still rose but by less than when these carriers were present. For low cost carriers in the equivalent situations, prices declined. In markets where the merged companies did play a role, for low cost carriers, prices declined and those declines were larger when merged companies were as incumbents than as potential competitor. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Yunzhou Zhang was born and raised in Beijing, China. He is a M.S. candidate at Cornell University in Transportation System Engineering, with a minor in System Engineering. Before entering graduate school, he earned his Bachelor of Science Degree with cum laude in Civil Engineering at Technion -Israel Institute of Technology receiving University's Scholarship. Yunzhou Zhang has a passion in design and actualizing, in Engineering, with a specific interest in mathematical modeling. During his stay at Cornell, he has focused on mathematical modeling in analyzing real-world's questions. He had two internships during his study in Cornell, in modeling department of Beijing Transportation Research Center and in modeling department of Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. He is looking forward to become a research-oriented engineer in the field of Transportation Engineering.