U.S. Government Says AA-US Air Merger May Be Illegal on These 1,044 Routes
Skift Take
The lawsuit shows in graphic detail that the merger would cripple competition on more than 1,000 domestic routes, and that's a deep challenge to the airlines' contention that there is overlap on merely a dozen routes.
There are 1,044 city pairs where the American-US Airways merger may be illegal, according to the antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. government today.
The lawsuit (embedded below) pits the United States, Arizona, D.C., Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia against US Airways and AMR Corp.
The government alleges a merger would increase concentration and decrease competition, leading to higher airfares, fewer discounts, and poor service.
American and US Airways in the past countered such allegations about a reduction of competition by arguing that their networks only overlap on 12 nonstop routes.
But, the lawsuit goes much further than critics' previous arguments by pinpointing competition problems on 1,044 routes.
As the states explain in the lawsuit:
The more concentrated a market, and the more a transaction would increase concentration in a market, the more likely it is that a transaction would result in a meaningful reduction in competition.
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