Unwilling to adhere to U.S. Department
of Transportation conditions on its proposed slot swap transaction at New York's
LaGuardia and Washington's National airports, Delta Air Lines and US Airways on
Friday notified the department it is appealing its slot divestiture requirements
and would not proceed under current conditions.
The carriers last August announced
their original plan for Delta to swap with US Airways 42 slot pairs at National
in exchange for 125 slot pairs at LaGuardia, but subsequently revised that deal
in an attempt to appease DOT and the Federal Aviation Administration. In those concessions,
Delta agreed to gain only 110 slot pairs at LaGuardia and give up five slot pairs
apiece to AirTran, Spirit and WestJet. US Airways, meanwhile, agreed to take only
37 slot pairs at National, deferring the remaining five to JetBlue.
Those concessions, however, did
not adhere to DOT requirements outlined in May's final approval. If the carriers
want to pursue the slot swap, DOT ordered, they would have to divest a total of
20 LaGuardia and 14 National slot pairs "in bundles large enough to ensure
that a purchaser would have a sufficient number of slots to provide meaningful new
competition."
US Airways last week in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing said,
"On July 2, 2010, Delta and US Airways jointly advised the FAA that they did
not intend to proceed with the transaction under the conditions imposed by the FAA,
and that Delta and US Airways are prepared to complete the transaction without those
conditions."