The airline industry, after suffering years of losses and corporate bankruptcies, is again financially healthy. Mergers among the larger companies have brought prosperity — by cutting costs, taking seats out of service, and by charging fees for seat selection, extra baggage and ticket changes.

The airlines are doing better, but in many ways, passengers are suffering — with smaller seats, crowded planes and fees for everything beyond the basic ticket.

This week, the U.S. Justice Department announced an agreement to let the proposed merger of USAirways and American Airlines go forward. The deal will see the airlines sell off take-off and landing slots at major airports where they dominate. The Justice Department, which had threatened to block the merger, will force the sale of those slots to low-cost airlines like Southwest and JetBlue at Washington's Reagan National Airport, New York's LaGuardia and airports in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami.

The agreement is intended to increase price competition so that a combined USAirways/American cannot raise fares as the dominant position at certain airports.

It's unclear what impact, if any, the deal will have on Pittsburgh International Airport, which was a USAirways hub until 2004. The Justice Department deal has the airlines agreeing to maintain their existing hubs for three years. After that, hub cities such as Phildelphia or Charlotte could suffer the same fate as Pittsburgh when it was downgraded from hub status and saw a dramatic drop in both passenger traffic and flight options.

The USAirways/American merger probably will be a mixed bag for the flying public, depending on what airport is used. The merger will be good for USAirways and American, which is just emerging from bankruptcy. A bigger question is not whether this merger should be allowed, but why the earlier mega-mergers — United/Continental, Delta/Northwest and Southwest/AirTran — were allowed.

Given that those mergers were completed, it would have been unfair to block the USAirways/American deal, even though it will mean higher fares for some travelers and lower fares for others.

The Justice Department conditions are meant to spur price competition at airports in Washington, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Boston and Los Angeles. But there are no similar benefits at Pittsburgh International or other second-tier airports.

One troubling scenario has USAirways/American forced to compete on price with Southwest, JetBlue and other low-cost airlines on routes with the new government-imposed competition, so to boost profits, the company increases ticket prices at airports without much competition, such as Pittsburgh.

As a former hub, Pittsburgh's airport is today visibly underutlized from the time 13 years ago when 19.8 million passengers passed through the terminal on 600 flights. Today, the airport sees about 8 million passengers flying on 151 daily departures.

Without hub status, Pittsburgh does not generate enough passenger traffic to attract new carriers, although Southwest, Delta and other carriers have moved in to take up some of the gates vacated by USAirways.

Despite other airlines taking some of the gate capacity abandoned by USAirways, flying from Pittsburgh does not offer nearly as many direct flights as a decade ago — and fares are generally higher than at other busier, more competitive airports. Pittsburgh International should be working to lower the landing fee charged airlines, which is nearly double the rate charged at other national airports. To live up to its potential, the airport needs both competitive costs and more people flying.

Pittsburgh's business community is at a disadvantage with the limited direct destinations and noncompetitive fares at the airport. Proceeds from the recently signed gas lease for the airport property should be used to aggressively lower the landing fees at the airport, making it more competitive to airlines.

The USAirways/American merger was probably inevitable. The impact on Pittsburgh will likely be negligible, unless maintenance jobs at the airport are moved to Dallas, the future headquarters location.

But with the airport in the news, it's clear Pittsburgh International and travelers in this region face challenges beyond the USAirways/American merger.