United Airlines said Monday it has ended its bid to merge with American Airlines after it declined to join following an initial approach.
United CEO Scott Kirby said, “I was hoping to get that story across to American, but they declined to engage and instead closed the door publicly.”
Reports of a possible merger between United Airlines and American Airlines have attracted major industry attention, but no deal has been agreed to or formally announced.
It comes as United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby confirmed on Monday that he had approached American Airlines about a potential merger, which American rejected.
“I approached American to explore a combination because I thought together we could do something incredible for customers,” Kirby said in a statement. He said he shared his “big, bold vision” because he was confident it could win regulatory approval.
American rejected the idea and its CEO Robert Isom last week, who said such a merger would be bad for customers and “anti-competitive.”
People familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month that Kirby raised the idea of combining with the U.S. during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late February.
The meeting was scheduled to discuss the future of Washington’s Dulles Airport.
The combination of the two largest US network carriers would mark the biggest consolidation move in more than a decade, further consolidating a domestic market already dominated by four similar-sized players.
However, the scale of the potential tie-up has raised concerns among analysts and experts about the antitrust implications of such a deal.
He said that “American’s public comments make it clear that such a merger is not possible in the near future” but outlined its vision for a combined airline.
Kirby reiterated that the country lacks foreign airlines that fly more than half of the long-haul seats in the US, the majority of whose customers are American.
“The combined scale of United and American will be a better way to compete with foreign carriers,” he said.
Additionally, President Donald Trump said he was against the idea of a combination last week.
“I don’t like their merger,” he said. CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday morning. However, he said he would like someone to buy struggling discount carrier Spirit, but also suggested the federal government “could help.”
Notably, the United-American merger is currently the only proposal that was rejected and has no formal agreement.
However, if it were to be revived, it would face major regulatory and political hurdles.
