SENATOR WANTS STRONGER AIR MERGER REGULATION The chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee said the Transportation Department was allowing too many airline mergers and proposed its authority be transfered to the Justice Department. "The Transportation Department's antitrust enforcement has been disastrous, permitting rampant merger mania," Ohio Democrat Howard Metzenbaum said in a statement. "The nine largest airlines now control 94 per cent of the market. That's bad for competition and bad for the consumer," he said. Metzenbaum said he introduced a bill to transfer antitrust authority over airline mergers to the Justice Department in hopes it would more restrictive than the Transportation Department.