United CEO pitched mega‑merger

United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby raised the idea of merging with American Airlines in a late-February White House meeting with President Donald Trump, according to Reuters and Bloomberg. (reuters.com, bloomberg.com) Reuters reported Kirby brought up the tie-up at the end of a scheduled February 25 meeting about Washington Dulles International Airport. Bloomberg reported he also discussed the idea with senior administration officials, though neither report said a formal deal process had begun. (reuters.com, bloomberg.com) United declined to comment to Reuters and Bloomberg, and American also declined to comment to Bloomberg. The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters on April 13. (reuters.com, bloomberg.com) A United-American combination would join two of the four biggest United States carriers and create the world’s largest airline by traffic and revenue, according to CNBC and Bloomberg. Travel Weekly cited aviation data firm Cirium as saying the two airlines together account for 39.2% of domestic seats. (cnbc.com, bloomberg.com, travelweekly.com) The pitch lands after years of tougher airline antitrust enforcement. The Justice Department sued in 2023 to stop JetBlue’s proposed Spirit acquisition, and a federal judge blocked that deal in January 2024; a different federal court in 2023 also ruled that American Airlines and JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance violated antitrust law. (justice.gov, justice.gov) Kirby has argued for years that the United States market may support only two true global premium carriers, Reuters reported on April 14. That helps explain why he framed consolidation as a way to compete more effectively with large international rivals. (reuters.com) The idea also carries personal history. Kirby once served as president of American Airlines before leaving in 2016, and Reuters noted that both Kirby and American Chief Executive Robert Isom later worked at US Airways before the 2013 American-US Airways merger created the current American Airlines. (reuters.com, cnbc.com) The White House meeting itself was tied to an airport where United is investing heavily. In December 2024, United and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced a more than $500 million expansion and modernization project at its Washington Dulles hub, including a new 14-gate Concourse E. (united.com) Investors initially treated the report as more than idle talk. Bloomberg said American shares jumped as much as 11% on April 13 after its report, and Transport Topics, citing Bloomberg, said American was still up 4.7% in premarket trading on April 14 while United rose as much as 2.8%. (bloomberg.com, ttnews.com) For now, the story is a pitch, not a transaction. No airline has announced talks, no merger filing is public, and the last major airline tie-up the Justice Department challenged did not survive court review. (reuters.com, justice.gov)