Congress has raised concern that if this merger goes through American and US Airways combined would have over 70 percent of the takeoff and landing slots at Reagan National Airport an airport south of downtown Washington, D.C. Some have suggested that if the sale is allowed to go through, the carriers should be forced to sell off some of their slots in order that consumers will have choices and there will be completion at the airport. 

In the early years of the 1978 deregulation of the airline industry, it brought about a number of startup air carriers, resulting in competition which helped to reduce ticket prices and improved carrier expansion in service especially to smaller communities. However, that was short lived. By the mid 80’s competition in the airline industry began to erode as venture capitalist like Frank Lorenzo began swallow up competition through mergers (Continental Airlines, Eastern Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, New York Air, Peoplexpress Airlines) resulting in higher ticket prices and reduced services. 

A flurry of mergers and acquisitions occurred during the 1980s, when Delta and Western Airlines merged, United acquired Pan Am’s Pacific routes, Northwest acquired Republic Airlines, and American and Air California merged. 

Since 2000, American acquired the bankrupt airline TWA in 2001, America West acquired US Airways in 2005, while the latter was in bankruptcy; Delta acquired Northwest in 2008; United acquired Continental in 2010; and Southwest acquired AirTran in 2011. 

Other attempts at merging since 2000 failed because of opposition from the Department of Justice (DOJ) or employees and creditors. For example, in 2000, an agreement was reached that allowed Northwest to acquire a 50 percent stake in Continental (with limited voting power) to resolve the antitrust suit brought by DOJ against Northwest’s proposed acquisition of a controlling interest in Continental. 

A proposed merger of United and US Airways in 2000 also resulted in opposition from DOJ, which found that in its view, the merger would violate antitrust laws by reducing competition, increasing air fares, and harming consumers on airline routes throughout the United States. Although DOJ expressed its intent to sue to block the transaction, the parties abandoned the transaction before a suit was filed. In 2006, the proposed merger of US Airways and Delta fell apart because of opposition from Delta’s pilots and some of its creditors, as well as its senior management.

Since deregulation in 1978, the financial stability of the airline industry has become a considerable concern for the federal government due, in part, to the level of financial assistance it has provided to the industry through assuming terminated pension plans and other forms of assistance.