Post date: January 31, 2001
Michael Levine, adjunct professor of law at Harvard Law School, will testify as an expert witness on airline mergers before a hearing of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee tomorrow morning. The hearing chaired by Arizona Sen. John McCain will examine the proposed acquisition of Trans World Airlines (TWA) by American Airlines.
“I look forward to testifying before the Commerce Committee,” said Levine. “I strongly oppose these mergers because they will be used to create a ‘Big Two’ industry structure. United and American will become duopolists insulated from full network competition by control of scarce infrastructure and use rights in the Northeast, which will give them system scope that can’t be matched by competitors.”
Levine is a former airline executive and a well-known airline industry expert. He currently teaches courses at the Law School titled, “International Joint Ventures” and “Regulation, Deregulation and Reregulation.”
“Michael Levine is a great example of a faculty member who provides our students with the kind of Œreal world¹ experience they can only get from someone with his professional background,” said Todd Rakoff, dean of Law School¹s the J.D. Program. “The U.S. Congress would have a difficult time finding a more informed expert in the area of airline mergers and acquisitions.”
In addition to his testimony tomorrow before the Commerce Committee, Levine is scheduled to testify next week before the Senate¹s Antitrust Subcommittee, a key panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee.