This week, the department dropped its opposition after the companies agreed to give up some space at a few airports — hardly sufficient to ensure the vigorous competition in the airline industry needed to keep fares down.
In agreeing to the merger, the department seems to have forgotten the crucial arguments it made in its suit. It said that competition would decline significantly on more than 1,000 routes where the two companies currently compete head-to-head. And it said that the new combined American Airlines would control 69 percent of the limited takeoff and landing slots at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, giving it a near-monopoly there.
Under the proposed deal, which is subject to public comment and has to be approved by a federal judge, the two airlines will divest 15 percent of the takeoff and landing slots they control at Reagan National Airport and 7 percent of the slots they control at La Guardia Airport in New York to low-cost airlines like JetBlue. This would give travelers at those airports more choice and possibly lower fares, but the change may not be significant.