Regulatory inquiry puts Delta, United and JetBlue under the spotlight as the US aviation industry faces questions over how algorithms, customer data and loyalty programmes could influence airfares.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered three major American airlines to provide information about their pricing practices as part of a wider investigation into whether businesses use personal data to determine the prices offered to individual consumers.
The orders, announced on October 28, 2026, cover Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and JetBlue, alongside six companies operating in ride-hailing, food delivery and retail. The FTC wants to establish whether prices for the same product or service vary between customers because of information such as browsing history, location, purchasing behaviour or participation in loyalty programmes.
The inquiry comes amid growing debate about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in commercial pricing. For airlines, which already rely on sophisticated revenue-management systems to adjust fares as demand and seat availability change, the investigation raises important questions about the distinction between conventional dynamic pricing and pricing tailored to an individual traveller.
The FTC has not established that any of the three airlines is engaging in unlawful personalised pricing. Instead, it is seeking company-level information to determine what practices exist and how they operate.
The Commission issued the orders under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, which authorises it to conduct market studies and obtain information from businesses even when an investigation is not tied to a specific law-enforcement case.
The agency is seeking details about the data, algorithms, tools and procedures companies use to determine prices and, where relevant, worker compensation. It also wants to understand whether customers could receive different offers for the same service based on personal information or loyalty-programme participation.
FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said the agency intended to scrutinise methods that could influence how much consumers pay for the same product or how much gig workers receive for comparable work.
The nine companies named in the orders are Delta, United, JetBlue, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart. They have 45 days from receiving their respective orders to respond. The FTC can seek federal court enforcement if a company fails to comply. Source: FTC.
The distinction between these two approaches is central to the investigation.
Dynamic pricing is already a standard feature of airline operations. Carriers adjust fares according to factors such as demand, remaining inventory, advance-purchase periods, competition, route performance and the conditions attached to each fare.
A passenger booking a flight several months ahead may find a lower fare than someone purchasing a seat a few days before departure. Similarly, two passengers on the same flight can pay different amounts because they booked at different times or selected different fare products.
These differences do not, by themselves, demonstrate personalised pricing based on an individual's data.
Surveillance or personalised pricing raises a separate question: whether a company uses customer-specific information to estimate an individual's willingness to pay and then adjusts the offer accordingly.
For example, a hypothetical airline pricing system might use a customer's browsing behaviour, previous purchases or loyalty profile to estimate how much that person would be willing to pay for a particular flight. The FTC wants to determine whether companies use such methods and, if so, what data and algorithms are involved.
That example illustrates the regulator's concern; it is not evidence that the named airlines use such a system.
The latest inquiry follows a public debate about Delta's use of AI-assisted pricing technology.
In 2025, Delta faced questions from US lawmakers about its work with Fetcherr, an AI pricing technology provider. Concern grew after comments by Delta executives about the potential for AI to improve pricing decisions prompted speculation that the technology might eventually tailor fares to individual customers.
Delta subsequently rejected that interpretation.
In an August 2025 response to senators, the airline said it had never used, was not testing and did not plan to use a fare product that targeted individual customers with personalised prices based on personal data.
Delta explained that its AI-assisted tools were intended to support pricing analysts by processing aggregated market and demand information. It said its systems did not provide the AI pricing tool with customers' personal information.
The distinction matters because using AI to recommend fares based on overall demand is not the same as using personal data to calculate a different price for each traveller.
Nevertheless, the episode demonstrated how quickly airline pricing technology can become a public-relations issue when customers are uncertain about what information influences the prices they see.
Another episode brought the issue into sharper focus in April 2026.
A JetBlue customer complained on social media that a ticket price had increased by $230 within a day while attempting to arrange travel for a funeral. A response from the airline's social-media account suggested clearing browser cookies or using an incognito window.
The reply prompted questions about whether browsing information could influence fares. JetBlue later said the response was incorrect and apologised, explaining that its fares were not determined by cached data or other personal information. The airline said prices could change as seats were purchased or inventory was adjusted in response to demand.
The incident subsequently became part of wider scrutiny of JetBlue's pricing practices, including questions from lawmakers and a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that customer data was used to raise fares. Those allegations are not proof of wrongdoing, and the airline has denied using personal information to set individual prices.
The controversy highlights a practical challenge for airlines: fares can change rapidly for legitimate inventory and demand reasons, but customers may interpret a sudden increase as evidence that the airline is targeting them personally.
The latest orders also represent a change in the FTC's approach to gathering evidence.
In July 2024, the Commission launched a study examining third-party companies that provide tools to personalise prices and offers. Preliminary findings released in January 2025 indicated that intermediaries could use information such as a person's location, browsing history, shopping behaviour and even mouse movements to help retailers tailor prices or promotions.
However, that earlier work focused on technology providers and intermediaries rather than directly establishing how the businesses selling goods and services actually set their prices.
The new inquiry seeks information directly from the companies whose pricing decisions affect consumers, including airlines. The FTC intends to use the findings to inform policymakers and regulators about the technologies, data sources and commercial practices involved.
In August 2026, the Commission also invited public comment on a proposed enforcement policy statement concerning personalised pricing. The FTC warned that undisclosed use of personal information to set individual prices could violate consumer-protection law, depending on the circumstances. It also acknowledged that it does not have the authority to impose a blanket ban on all personalised pricing.
The immediate impact is likely to be greater scrutiny of pricing systems, data governance and customer communications rather than an immediate change to how tickets are sold.
Airlines use extensive commercial data to forecast demand, manage seat inventory and respond to competitors. AI can accelerate those processes, helping revenue-management teams analyse large numbers of routes and fares.
The challenge is ensuring that the data used for those decisions is appropriate, that the systems operate consistently with applicable laws and that customers are not misled about how their prices are determined.
The inquiry could prompt airlines to review several areas:
Data governance: Documenting which customer data is collected, how it is used and whether it influences fare recommendations.
Algorithmic oversight: Establishing controls to identify whether pricing systems generate individualised offers based on personal information.
Customer transparency: Clearly distinguishing publicly available promotional fares, loyalty benefits and conventional inventory-based price changes from any genuinely personalised pricing.
Third-party technology: Reviewing contracts, data-sharing arrangements and the role of external AI providers in revenue-management decisions.
Regulatory preparedness: Maintaining records that explain how fares are generated and how pricing decisions can be audited.
These are potential implications of the inquiry, not requirements that the FTC has already imposed on every airline.
The investigation arrives at a time when airlines are balancing increasingly sophisticated pricing tools against customer expectations of fairness and transparency.
Airlines have legitimate reasons to charge different fares for the same flight. Demand, seat availability, booking conditions and the timing of a purchase can all affect the price. The regulatory question is whether personal information introduces another layer of price discrimination that customers would not reasonably expect and that may be inadequately disclosed.
For Delta, United and JetBlue, the inquiry creates an opportunity to explain their pricing practices with evidence. Delta and JetBlue have already publicly denied using personal information to set individual fares, while the FTC's information requests seek to establish what the companies actually do.
The bottom line: The FTC's action does not mean personalised airline pricing has been proven. It marks a significant step towards examining how airlines use data and AI in fare-setting—and whether travellers are being offered prices based on market conditions, their individual profiles, or some combination of the two.
The results could influence future expectations for transparency, consumer privacy and the responsible use of AI across the aviation industry.
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