A federal judge has ruled that United Airlines and American Airlines did not conspire to fix fees on their computerized reservation systems as several other carriers had charged. In handing down his decision Monday, U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie held that the airlines had no evidence to support any inference of conspiracy, but were relying solely on speculation. The plaintiffs, including Continental Airlines, USAir Group Inc., Northwest Airlines, had sought more than $1.1 billion in recovery of such fees paid to American and United from 1984 to 1987. Chicago-based United is the nation's largest airline, while American, based in Fort Worth, is the second biggest. ``American considers this to be a major victory,'' Anne H. McNamara, the airline's senior vice president and general counsel said Monday. ``We feel totally vindicated by the decision, because the judge recognized the conspiracy charges for what they are _ absolute speculation.'' In their antitrust complaint against American and United, the plaintiffs contended the defendants participated in a conspiracy spanning several years to raise the other carriers' cost of doing business. Specifically, plaintiffs accused the two airlines of illegally agreeing to fix the price of ``booking fees'' charged by SABRE and Apollo _ the American and United computerized reservations systems, respectively, beginning in November 1984. At that time American announced it would charge other airlines $1.75 per booking for the SABRE service. United later established a price of $1.85. The plaintiffs also alleged the two defendants unlawfully forced other carriers to pay what the industry terms ``interline ticketing fees,'' which are paid when one airline issues a ticket on its own internal ``ticket stock'' for travel on another airline, such as when a passenger's itinerary involves two or more carriers for a single trip. The court found American and United had met their ``procedural burden'' of showing each had independently decided on the level of booking fees after November 1984 and on establishment of a reimbursement charge for interline ticketing services. On Aug. 12, Rafeedie granted American's and United's motions for summary judgment on two of three of the plaintiffs' principal monopolization theories: that SABRE and Apollo are ``essential facilities'' and that the defendants engaged in ``monopoly leveraging.''
