United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby reportedly raised the idea of a merger with American Airlines during a late-February meeting with President Donald Trump, according multiple reports Tuesday. A combination of the two carriers would join the largest and second-largest U.S. airlines by capacity and create the world’s largest airline by several measures. United and American have not commented on the reports, while administration officials have not publicly detailed any response to the proposal.
A merger of that size would likely face significant antitrust review. Reuters reported that a combined United-American operation would account for about 40% of U.S. domestic flying capacity.
The proposal has drawn attention from consumer advocates and industry analysts, who said a combination of the two carriers could reduce competition and give airlines more pricing power.
“A United-American deal would reduce the ‘Big 4’ to a ‘Big 3’ with one dominant player,” antitrust lawyer Andre Barlow of DBM Law Group told Reuters. “There would likely be competitive issues in many city-pair routes and hubs.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an interview with CNBC last week that there may be room for additional airline consolidation, though he also said any transaction would be reviewed.
“Is there room for some mergers in the aviation industry? Yeah, I think there is,” Duffy told CNBC.
Terrific! Just what we need, the two worst major airlines in terms of lousy customer service merging. If that actually happens you can kiss the pilot “shortage” goodby!