![\"REUTERS\/MARCO](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/web1_2026-04-23T173622Z_896907032_RC22VKAW80BV_RTRMADP_3_USA-AIRLINES-AMERICAN.JPG\")
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REUTERS\/MARCO BELLO<\/p>\n
A United Airlines airplane taxis after landing at Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., today. American Airlines Chief Executive Robert Isom flatly rejected a merger with United Airlines as anti-competitive today, pledged to defend American\u2019s Chicago hub and signaled that partnerships \u2014 including potentially deeper ties with Alaska Airlines \u2014 offer a safer path for growth.<\/p>\n
CHICAGO >> American Airlines Chief Executive Robert Isom flatly rejected a merger with United Airlines as anti-competitive today, pledged to defend American\u2019s Chicago hub and signaled that partnerships \u2014 including potentially deeper ties with Alaska Airlines \u2014 offer a safer path for growth.<\/p>\n
He spoke amid renewed industry consolidation speculation after United CEO Scott Kirby raised the prospect earlier this year of a tie-up with American to the Trump administration and as U.S. airlines face tighter limits at congested hubs.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the company\u2019s first-quarter earnings call, Isom said federal action to ease congestion at Chicago O\u2019Hare airport would allow American to rebuild its schedule to about 500 daily departures.<\/p>\n
The Federal Aviation Administration last week capped flights at O\u2019Hare for the summer after airlines scheduled more flying than the airport could handle, forcing carriers to scale back plans.<\/p>\n
Without those steps, O\u2019Hare \u201cwould have likely been in a delay program for the very first flight of the day,\u201d Isom said.<\/p>\n
Isom said American has no intention of backing down in Chicago, where it competes head-to-head with United.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNo one\u2019s going to kick us out of Chicago,\u201d Isom said, adding the two carriers would be \u201croommates for a long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He rejected the idea of a tie-up with United, calling such a deal anti-competitive and bad for customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be roommates, and we\u2019re not getting married,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Isom said American remains open to opportunities if assets become available, but has nothing under consideration now.<\/p>\n
Where American does see room to move is in partnerships.<\/p>\n
Reuters reported on Wednesday that American and Alaska are in early-stage talks to deepen their relationship, potentially by bringing Alaska into American\u2019s transatlantic and transpacific joint business arrangements, according to two people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
That plan has already drawn a warning from American\u2019s pilot union, which said it would \u201cvigorously defend\u201d contract protections tied to code-sharing.<\/p>\n
\u201cPursuing a plan to have more of our flying done by another airline is not a path to making American Airlines a globally competitive airline,\u201d the union said today.<\/p>\n
Isom said any expansion would stay within those labor agreement limits.<\/p>\n
American and Alaska already have a partnership built around codesharing, reciprocal loyalty benefits and West Coast connectivity into international routes, under what they have described as a \u201cWest Coast International Alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isom said American sees room to deepen ties between the two sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REUTERS\/MARCO BELLO A United Airlines airplane taxis after landing at Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport, in Fort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[558,249,251,250],"class_list":["post-243953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-business","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}