US Airways, American Airlines and the U.S. Department of Justice disclosed Monday that they’ve picked a mediator to see if they can resolve any or all issues in the DOJ lawsuit seeking to block the air carriers’ merger.
They didn’t disclose the mediator’s name or any other particulars of the mediation effort.
In a joint status update filed late Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., they simply stated: “The Parties have agreed to a mediator suggested by the Court.”
It is common in lawsuits for judges to urge the warring parties to present their cases to a mediator in hopes of resolving the issues before trial. The DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against American and US Airways begins Nov. 25 in U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s courtroom in Washington, D.C.
In this case, the judge on Aug. 30 ordered: ”The parties shall also confer and contact the Court regarding the appointment of a third-party mediator for use at the parties’ discretion.”
(I would call this a neutral development. The judge told them to go get a mediator, so they went and got themselves a mediator. This doesn’t indicate they’re any closer (or farther) from a settlement. It indicates they listened to the judge and did what she told them to do.)