Генеральный директор United Airlines Скотт Кирби отверг слияние с Delta и American Airlines из-за антимонопольных рисков

R Street Institute employees are not allowed to fly United Airlines. It’s in the Washington, DC-based think tank’s bylaws. The internal rule is informed by delayed and cancelled flights from the past, and shoddy operations more broadly. So, while anecdote is a flawed way of analyzing anything, R Street’s bylaws remind us that there’s invariably some truth in stereotypes. Scott Kirby was hired by United to correct the stereotypes. Media accounts indicate he’s had some success. While technology problems at Newark Airport (a major United hub) as recently as this year have fed the R Street perception of the airline, stories have emerged of a United trying to shed past perceptions with better planes, routes, and service. Which is why Kirby’s individualistic actions are so puzzling. Rather than continue to quietly fix what needs fixing on the path to amplified media accounts of a revived legacy airline, Kirby has increasingly made United a story about Scott Kirby over what frustrated flyers want: fewer delays, fewer cancellations, and much better service. For evidence, consider Kirby’s 2025 call to Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian. He was proposing a merger. Which would be the sporting equivalent of Denver Broncos running back (Denver another major United hub) Jaleel McLaughlin calling Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to see if he might like to bring his abundant talents to Denver. Sorry, but Mahomes has the Super Bowls, the Super Bowl rings, and the first ballot Hall of Fame credentials. If there’s going to be a call about teaming up, Mahomes will be the caller. Delta leads United on pre-tax income, operating margin, loyalty revenue, and balance-sheet strength. If there’s going to be a call about Delta and United joining forces, Bastian will make it. Yet there’s more. Bastian quite simply wouldn’t make the call, however logical the combination might be. And he wouldn’t simply because he’s aware of not just the existing White House occupant, but the previous one. During the Biden administration, antitrust forces wouldn’t even allow the merger of JetBlue and Spirit. As for Donald Trump, and while his second administration has been more permissive about mergers than the first, it’s easy to forget that the first tried to block the combination of AT&T and Time Warner, Broadcom and Qualcomm, and even DraftKings’ attempted tie up with FanDuel. To then pretend that the second and fourth largest U.S. airlines would be able to combine without serious federal pushback is a bit of a reach. And it didn’t stop there. After the Delta rejection, Kirby pivoted to American Airlines. Though American would be a bit more of a peer, can readers imagine the federal antitrust outcry in consideration of how many gates United and American presently occupy at O’Hare alone? As Delta did, American rejected the offer. Seriously, imagine the response of shareholders to so much work put into a combination that antitrust officials would so readily block. None of this should be construed as support for antitrust. Quite the opposite. The view here is that the economy and airlines would be much better if antitrust ankle biters would get out of the way. Except that they’re not going to. And Kirby would be wise to implicitly acknowledge this truth. Rather than spending his precious time and political capital on quixotic initiatives that will only succeed insofar as they expand his own public persona, Kirby should reward his shareholders by keeping his eye on the undeniable achievements he’s had in bringing United’s once disheveled house back into order. Instead of merging with Delta, Kirby should direct his energies to operating United like it.