\n<\/p>\n
The CEO of United Airlines is said to have pitched a blockbuster merger with American Airlines during a meeting with Donald Trump, floating the combination of the world\u2019s two largest carriers.<\/p>\n
Scott Kirby, who leads United, raised the prospect during an encounter with the US president in late February, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed sources. Such a deal would overhaul the global air travel industry \u2013 and would likely face intense competition scrutiny.<\/p>\n
United declined to comment. American and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Including international flights, United and American were already the world\u2019s two biggest airlines by available capacity last year, according to OAG, the aviation data group.<\/p>\n
Shares in United rose 3.9% during early trading in New York on Tuesday. Shares in American climbed 9.3%.<\/p>\n
A combination between the two carries would be the largest consolidation move in the airline industry in at least a decade, combining the \u201cbig four\u201d \u2013 United, American, Delta and Southwest, which collectively control 74% of passenger capacity in the US sector \u2013 into the \u201cbig three\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is unclear how Trump responded to Kirby\u2019s proposal. A merger between United and American would be likely to face staunch opposition from unions, rival airlines, lawmakers and airports \u2013 and spark fears about overlapping routes and job losses.<\/p>\n
Critics swiftly warned that any such deal would also have a detrimental impact on passengers.<\/p>\n
Ganesh Sitaraman, director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, and author of Why Flying Is Miserable, said: \u201cA potential United-American merger proves how broken the airline industry is in America \u2013 and would be an absolute disaster for the flying public.<\/p>\n
\u201cFewer choices mean higher ticket prices, more fees, and fewer options for anyone who wants to get from point A to point B. Even the most permissive antitrust regulator should put their foot down at such a blatantly anticompetitive merger.\u201d<\/p>\n
William McGee, a senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, described the mooted deal as \u201cundoubtedly the most absurd airline merger I\u2019ve ever heard about in the 41 years that I\u2019ve been working in, writing about and advocating about in this industry\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe fact that we would even be having a serious discussion about a single US carrier controlling nearly 40% of the market is beyond absurd. We have never, ever, all throughout the history of the airline industry in this country, had that level of concentration at the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat all this consolidation has done is it\u2019s been harmful for consumers beyond a doubt. They have fewer choices. They have fewer nonstop flights depending on where you\u2019re living. They have fewer destinations. They have fewer flight frequencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Dennis Tajer, the spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, a union representing the 16,000 pilots of American Airlines, approached the report with an open mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been very open about our concerns regarding American Airlines\u2019s financial, operational and customer service underperformance under the current management team,\u201d said Tajer. \u201cWe are always interested in and welcome ideas that will turn around our airline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sean Duffy, the US transport secretary, has suggested that there is scope for consolidation in the air travel industry, but stressed any deal would face close scrutiny. He told CNBC last week: \u201cIf there was a merger between some of the larger airlines, they would have to peel off \u200bsome of their assets. I am not \u200bgoing to pre-commit to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duffy added: \u201cWho knows who is going to match up? Is there room for some mergers in the \u200baviation industry? Yeah, I think there is.\u201d He acknowleded there had been \u201c\u200ba lot of chatter\u201d about potential deals.<\/p>\n
Reuters contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The CEO of United Airlines is said to have pitched a blockbuster merger with American Airlines during a meeting with Donald Trump, floating the combination of the world\u2019s two largest carriers. Scott Kirby, who leads United, raised the prospect during an encounter with the US president in late February, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1202,473,303,3277,2883,481,1910,17380,2183,9675,3677],"class_list":{"0":"post-48317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-airlines","9":"tag-american","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-ceo","12":"tag-competition","13":"tag-fears","14":"tag-merger","15":"tag-pitched","16":"tag-reportedly","17":"tag-sparking","18":"tag-united"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}