Over the past few years, major U.S. airlines-flying in blue skies but drowning in red ink-have merged in hopes of consolidating costs, increasing efficiency and improving the bottom line.
Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines tied the knot in 2008. United Airlines hitched up with Continental in 2010. And Southwest and AirTran followed a year later.
As of February, two other airlines have been engaged-American Airlines and US Airways. Their union would create the largest airline in the world. But now it looks like they might not make it to the altar.
And that might be a good thing for Texarkana. Maybe.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block the merger, charging a violation of antitrust laws.
In its filing, the Justice Departmnet said that in recent years "the major airlines have, in tandem, raised fares, imposed new and higher fees, and reduced service. Competition has diminished and consumers have paid a heavy price."
The suit says the merger would further reduce competition and affect the public.
"Because of the size of the airline industry, if this merger were approved, even a small increase in the price of airline tickets, checked bags, or flight change fees would cause hundreds of millions of dollars of harm to American consumers annually," the filing continues.
Joining the Justice Department in opposing the merger are Texas, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and the District of Columbia, where the two airlines are either headquartered or operate major hubs.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says his office joined in the lawsuit because it could possibly lead to reduced service for smaller cities in the state.
"Today's legal action was prompted by the State's concerns about the potential for reduced airline service to several of Texas' smaller airports that are currently served exclusively by American Airlines and American Eagle flights. In recent years, US Airways has pursued a 'capacity discipline' strategy, a business model that relies upon substantial reductions in both service and capacity-a phenomenon that has followed each significant legacy airline merger in recent years. If this strategy is continued when US Airways' executives take over leadership at the new American Airlines, some areas in rural Texas could see their travel options reduced as a result of the merger," Abbott said in a prepared statement.
The chiefs of American and US Airways say they will defend the merger in court.
No one can say for sure what this merger would mean for Texarkana Regional Airport. But it is within the realm of possibility that the number of daily flights could be reduced or services eliminated entirely.
Notice we said possible, not likely. We don't think the newly merged carriers would give up on Texarkana entirely. But we won't be the ones making the call.
The merger is not vital to the survival of either company. US Airways is doing well. Profits are soaring. Cost cutting made that happen. And American has successfully climbed out of bankruptcy and is showing a nice profit as well. Paring costs to the bone did the trick there as well.
Will Texarkana be part of future cost cutting? We can't say. And, frankly, that could happen merger or not.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court. And how this plays out in the real world after all the legal wrangling is over.