the only thing I believe less than an airline exec is a goverment agency.
I think that's a pretty good philosophy.
From the linked article:
If the Justice Department forces the new American to surrender slots at Reagan, Parker predicted competitors would stop serving those communities. When US Airways lost slots at Reagan a year and a half ago, JetBlue acquired 16 slots and used them to serve Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa.
"We were forced to reduce service to smaller communities," said Parker, citing an end of service to Madison, Wis., and Grand Rapids, Mich. "We want to fly to those communities."
When US "lost slots" at DCA? Huh? US picked up 42 slot pairs from DL, enough for 21 daily departures. Sure, US handed over more than three times that number of LGA slots (great negotiating skills at work there), but US
gained DCA slots - it did not lose DCA slots. DL then funded the slot divestitures to jetBlue and Westjet.
Forced to reduce service to smaller communities? Quite obviously, the cities still served from DCA by US are more profitable to the US network than nonstops to Madison or Grand Rapids, or else US would still serve them.
Which benefits consumers more? Lower fares from DCA to BOS, FLL, MCO and TPA or some 50-seaters to small burgs at very high nonstop fares on US? The answer from the antitrust enforcers, every time, would be lower fares to the big cities where lots and lots of people fly, like BOS, FLL, MCO and TPA.
If Parker manages to hold on to most or all of the combined new AA DCA slot holdings, that will be a minor miracle. More likely, new AA will be forced to auction a number about equal to the current AA holdings to WN/B6/NK. That would keep new AA at about half of the DCA slots, which is the upper limit identified by the government during the US/DL slot swap.
I don't think Parker gives a rat's ass about the "small communities." He really doesn't want any more low-fare competition at DCA from WN, B6 or NK.
Not a chance that DL or UA get DCA slots out of this unless WN, B6, NK (or Westjet) don't want them.