Delta Air Lines and US Airways amended their long-pending
slot swap deal at New York LaGuardia and Washington D.C. Reagan National
airports, pending regulatory approvals.
According to an agreement filed with the Federal Aviation
Administration on Monday, Delta would gain from US Airways 132 LaGuardia slot
pairs in exchange for 42 slot pairs at National, $66.5 million and rights to
serve Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2015. "The transaction could result in the
divestiture of up to 16 slot pairs at LaGuardia and eight slot pairs at Reagan
National to airlines with limited or no service at those airports,"
according to the carriers.
The agreement requires the approval of the U.S. Department
of Transportation, which in a May 2010 final decision ruled a previous
agreement between the carriers did not pass regulatory muster, approving the
deal only on the condition that they divest 20 slot pairs at New York's
LaGuardia and 14 pairs at Reagan Washington National airports. In that deal,
itself revised to appease prior regulatory objections, Delta was to gain 110
slot pairs at LaGuardia, but give up five slot pairs apiece to AirTran, Spirit
and WestJet. US Airways, meanwhile, would have received 37 slot pairs at
National, deferring the remaining five slot pairs to JetBlue.
In the original plan, announced in August 2009, Delta was to
gain 125 LaGuardia slot pairs, while US Airways would get control of 42
National slot pairs.