By Alison Sider and Nicholas G. Miller
United Airlines is abandoning its plans to buy American Airlines before it really got started.
On Monday, United Chief Executive Scott Kirby outlined his airline's case for buying American, an ambitious deal that would have brought together two of the top carriers in the U.S. He also acknowledged high hurdles in moving forward, especially with American unwilling to engage, and said that "pursuit of talks with American have ended."
Kirby said that given American's public aversion, a merger, which would bring together two of the world's largest airlines, is "off the table for the foreseeable future." Still, he defended United's attempt, arguing that a combination would have allowed it to expand its service internationally and to smaller communities, increase value for customers by adding economy seats to the market and better compete with foreign airlines.
He also said that a merger would boost the U.S. economy, adding that the combined company would create tens of thousands of new jobs while its need for new aircraft would support manufacturing in America.
Kirby expected the merger would attract skepticism from government officials but said that the combination would have been different than other proposed airline mergers by focusing on growth rather than cuts.
"While divestitures in certain domestic markets obviously would have been required, I believe regulators would have approved such a deal because they would have recognized the benefits to customers, our shared employees and communities from coast-to-coast and around the world," Kirby said.
Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com and Nicholas G. Miller at nicholas.miller@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 27, 2026 07:55 ET (11:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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