This paper develops an event study to investigate the airfare effects of the bankruptcy of a financially distressed full-service carrier (FSC) and its subsequent acquisition by a low-cost carrier (LCC) in Brazil. We account for the distressed carrier's survival network design strategies (SNDS) pursued during its reorganization—a suspected source of sample selection bias. Additionally, as rivals' pricing could be aimed at driving the distressed/bankrupt carrier out of the market, we treat the carrier's distress as endogenously determined with it. Our results do not uncover any survival pricing behavior stemming from SNDS, but reveal fiercer price competition from rivals in periods preceding both the distressed carrier's bankruptcy filing and acquisition. We also find evidence of enduring price competitiveness in the long run of the acquisition event, shedding light on the potential facilitating role played by bankruptcy protection regulations in keeping and sustaining market contestability after the bankruptcy-filing period.

本文开展了一项事件研究，以调查财务困境中的全方位服务承运人（FSC）破产及其随后在巴西被低成本航空承运人（LCC）收购对其机票的影响。我们考虑了陷入困境的运营商在其重组过程中采用的生存网络设计策略（SNDS），这可能是样本选择偏见的来源。此外，由于竞争对手的定价可能旨在将陷入困境/破产的承运人赶出市场，因此我们将承运人的困境视为内在决定。我们的结果并未发现任何源自SNDS的生存定价行为，而是揭示了在陷入困境的承运商申请破产和收购之前，竞争对手的激烈价格竞争。