By David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON\/CHICAGO, April 13 (Reuters) – United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby pitched the potential for merging with American Airlines in a meeting nFWN40W13A with U.S. President Donald Trump https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/donald-trump\/ in late February, two sources said, raising the prospect of an industry-reshaping deal likely to face significant regulatory hurdles.<\/p>\n
A combination of \u200ctwo of the largest U.S. network carriers would mark the biggest consolidation move in more than a decade, further tightening a domestic market already dominated by four similarly \u200csized players.<\/p>\n
Including international flights, United and American were already the world’s two largest airlines by available capacity in 2025, according to OAG data.<\/p>\n
The meeting with Trump took place on February 25 toward the end of a scheduled White House meeting \u200bhttps:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/us-advancing-discussions-how-rebuild-washington-dulles-airport-2026-03-09\/ on the future of Dulles airport, said the sources with knowledge of the matter. That was three days before the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/iran\/ that sent jet fuel prices soaring and has led airlines to raise fares and fees to offset higher costs.<\/p>\n
Kirby has argued to administration officials that a combined airline would be a stronger competitor in international markets and noted the Trump administration has focused on U.S. trade deficits around the globe, the sources said.<\/p>\n
The United CEO said at a forum in September that two-thirds of long-haul seats to and from the United States are \u200con foreign carriers, but 60% of passengers are U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
Industry officials \u2060said the chances of the deal’s approval would be slim, citing likely opposition from unions, rival airlines, lawmakers and airports, as well as concerns about route overlap and job losses.<\/p>\n
One person close to the White House said there was skepticism about such a tie-up, given its potential impact on competition and \u2060ticket prices at a time when the administration is already focused on rising costs for consumers ahead of midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n
Antitrust lawyer Seth Bloom said the deal would be unlikely to clear regulatory hurdles, even under a Trump administration that has taken a more relaxed approach to enforcement.<\/p>\n
“The administration has said it really cares about the issues that affect the consumer’s pocketbook, and this would give the airlines more pricing \u200bpower,” \u200bBloom said.<\/p>\n
It was not clear whether United has made any formal approach to American or whether a process was \u200bunderway. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were \u200cnot public.<\/p>\n
Story Continues <\/p>\n
United and American declined to comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
American shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trading following the report, while United shares were little changed.<\/p>\n
HIGHLY CONCENTRATED MARKET<\/p>\n
The U.S. airline industry is already highly concentrated, with American, Delta Air Lines, United and Southwest Airlines controlling the bulk of domestic traffic, each with a share of roughly 17%, according to Department of Transportation data.<\/p>\n
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said this month that there was room for consolidation nL1N40Q0S5 in the U.S. airline industry, but warned any deal would face close scrutiny for its impact on consumers.<\/p>\n
Ganesh Sitaraman, director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator and author of “Why Flying Is Miserable,” said a United-American merger would reduce competition.<\/p>\n
“Fewer choices mean higher ticket prices, more fees, \u200cand fewer options for anyone who wants to get from point A to point B,” he said.<\/p>\n
AMERICAN UNDER PRESSURE<\/p>\n
American \u200bhas been under pressure to improve profitability https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/americans-chicago-showdown-with-united-airlines-becomes-key-test-turnaround-2026-02-05\/ and close the gap with Delta and United, after unions earlier \u200bthis year criticized management https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/world-at-work\/american-airlines-unions-ratchet-up-pressure-board-over-lagging-profit-2026-02-12\/ over lagging returns. The airline has pointed to strong \u200bpremium demand and corporate travel to drive a recovery in 2026.<\/p>\n
The Texas-based carrier also carries about $25 billion in long-term debt, more than its larger rivals, \u200cleaving it with less financial flexibility as it works through a turnaround at \u200ba time of high fuel costs.<\/p>\n
American is the \u200bsmallest of the big four U.S. airlines by market value, at about $7 billion, compared with roughly $31 billion for United, $19 billion for Southwest and $44 billion for Delta.<\/p>\n
“We have been very open about our concerns regarding American’s financial, operational and customer service underperformance,” said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for American’s pilots’ union.<\/p>\n
United has struck a more confident tone as high fuel \u200bprices test the industry, with Kirby saying last month that a prolonged \u200ccost shock could create opportunities https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/us-airlines-face-fuel-driven-financial-shakeout-2026-03-30\/ for stronger airlines to gain share as weaker rivals struggle.<\/p>\n
Kirby previously served as American’s president from 2013 to 2016, but in \u200bthe past he has played down the appeal of large acquisitions.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago; Additional reporting by Chris Thomas \u200band Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City and Chris Sanders in Washington; Editing by Jamie Freed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh WASHINGTON\/CHICAGO, April 13 (Reuters) – United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby pitched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[13816,255402,28,12,127158,19772,644,15972,3123],"class_list":{"0":"post-583044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-american-airlines","9":"tag-american-shares","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-scott-kirby","13":"tag-southwest-airlines","14":"tag-trump-administration","15":"tag-united-airlines","16":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}