SENATOR WANTS STRONGER AIR MERGER REGULATION

  The chairman of the Senate antitrust
  subcommittee said the Transportation Department was allowing
  too many airline mergers and proposed its authority be
  transfered to the Justice Department.
      "The Transportation Department's antitrust enforcement has
  been disastrous, permitting rampant merger mania," Ohio
  Democrat Howard Metzenbaum said in a statement.
      "The nine largest airlines now control 94 per cent of the
  market. That's bad for competition and bad for the consumer,"
  he said.
      Metzenbaum said he introduced a bill to transfer antitrust
  authority over airline mergers to the Justice Department in
  hopes it would more restrictive than the Transportation
  Department.
  

