US: DOJ won’t push antitrust case against airlines during Obama administration

The Justice Department, which started investigating alleged collusion between the nation’s major airlines in mid-2015, will not bring an antitrust case against the carriers before the Obama administration leaves office at the end of next week, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The civil investigation has not been closed, cautioned the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Justice Department has not announced anything publicly.

Some airline executives believe that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will be friendlier to them than was President Barack Obama’s administration, which briefly tried to block the American Airlines-US Airways merger on antitrust grounds and adopted rules on fare advertising that the industry opposed.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said this week that he was excited about the prospect of a Trump administration. He said it might do more to invest in airport infrastructure and limit the US growth of three Middle Eastern airlines that some American carriers accuse of getting unfair government subsidies.

Full Content: Albuquerque Journal

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