United CEO brought merger idea to White House but considered it last fall

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby raised the idea of ​​an airline merger with the Trump administration this year, although he has been considering a potential airline deal since last fall, according to people familiar with the matter.

On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that Kirby floated the idea of ​​a partnership. American Airlines To the White House in February. Some airline analysts and experts have dismissed the possibility of this merger, which would create the world’s largest airline, saying the regulatory hurdles would be too high to clear. United and American declined to comment on the report.

Although waves of industry consolidation that began nearly two decades ago have left America, America, America, a combination of this magnitude has not been attempted in the United States. Delta Airlines And Southwest Airlines It controls approximately 80% of the domestic market share.

But United’s Kirby said the next phase for U.S. carriers is to figure out how to better compete on the global stage.

“The size will help compete on flights to the U.S.,” he said on the “Stratechery” podcast in an episode aired in January.

“We have customers who almost always fly United or fly Delta, but when they go to the Middle East they’re fragmented enough to fly Emirates,” he said. “If we were bigger and had more offerings for these customers, it would probably make more sense for them to fly us when they go to the Middle East.”

U.S. airlines have spent years complaining about what they call unfair government subsidies some Middle Eastern carriers receive. But U.S. carriers have recently partnered with some of these airlines: United now has a partnership with Emirates, American has a partnership with Qatar Airways, and Delta inked a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Air in 2024.