Originally Posted by
FWAAA
You may be right, but it seemed pretty clear to me during the US-DL slot swap that the DoJ considered 50% of the slots to be the upper limit that it would allow. Perhaps I'm reading too much into that, but US has about 50% of the DCA slots right now, and I don't see the combined airline being allowed to keep AA's share as well. Perhaps they'll have to divest 1/2 or 2/3 of AA's DCA slots - either way, the combined airline is not likely (IMO) to be any more dominant at DCA than US is now.
And I don't see DL or UA getting any of them - unless B6, WN and NK are not interested.
Actually giving it to NK would be interesting to see - triggering bloodbath to ensure US/AA cannot leverage their dominance in any pricing premium, while continue to allow UA next door to charge through the nose pricing on transcons and TATL out of IAD.