A large company with big pockets has many options when it comes to trying to edge out smaller companies with small pockets. It's important to note drivers get commisson, so fares correlate directly to wages.

Lowering prices means lower wages. Uber needs more drivers than riders to "win", because one of the things people like about it is the short wait time. If a driver can make an extra few dollars per ride for Fasten, they're going to try and wait on a Fasten rider before accepting an Uber rider. If riders find that wait times are much faster in Fasten, they will probably find it worth a few extra cents per mile to get home faster.

Now imagine if Uber were on the other end of that deal. Higher fares tells drivers they'll make more money taking Uber fares. Downtown, if there's more Uber drivers, they'll have faster pick-up. Lots of people are plenty happy to pay a little bit more to not spend an extra 5 minutes standing on the curb.

The airport's an important consideration. Every import from every state will already have Uber/Lyft on their phone, and know nothing about Ride/Fasten. They don't know they can price compare, and won't. They'll take whatever is the cheaper between Uber/Lyft. That's got to be a big chunk of local TNC money. There's no reason for Uber to lower their price there.

So it makes a lot of sense that Uber should raise prices initially. Maybe they'll lower them again. But if local TNCs go out of business, what's their motivation?