Letter to Eric Holder, Attorney General of the US - Manchester Airport Retaining American Airlines Flights to Nation's Capital

Letter

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, said today that American Airlines' decision to retain flights between Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) and Reagan National Airport in Washington (DCA) is good news for New Hampshire's air travelers.

"This is good news for Manchester-Boston Airport, which connects New Hampshire to the rest of the nation," said Senator Ayotte. "The route between Manchester and Washington is popular for recreational and business travelers, and I'm pleased to see this service will continue."

With MHT in danger of losing flights to DCA as a result of the pending American Airlines-U.S. Airways merger, Ayotte made the case for Manchester in a letter last summer to the Department of Transportation and the Department of Justice. Joining with Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Deb Fischer (R-NE), she expressed concern that flight divestiture stood to diminish consumer choice for those living in or near small and medium-sized markets.

AYOTTE-BLUNT-FISCHER LETTER (6/28/13):

Honorable Anthony Foxx
Secretary
Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590-9898

Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-2000

Dear Secretary Foxx and Attorney General Holder:

Many of our constituents, as well as our airports, have expressed concerns about the possibility that approval of the merger between American Airlines and US Airways might be conditioned on slot divestitures at Washington's Reagan National Airport. We fear that slot divestitures will cut or curtail service to small and medium-sized markets like Manchester, New Hampshire; Omaha, Nebraska; and Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri.

Combined, the new American Airlines will own approximately 68 percent of all slots at Reagan; however, the merged company would account for about 50 percent of the seats at the airport. Further, we believe that percentage of slot ownership at the airport, on its face, is a poor metric that fails to fully appreciate the anticompetitive effects that divestiture would have on our constituents that live in or near small or medium-sized communities, and we discourage you from giving it any material weight in your decision-making process.

In a hearing last week before the Subcommittee on Aviation, Susan Kurland, Assistant Transportation Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs, stated that air service to these communities is a "priority for the Department of Transportation" and is "one of the areas on which the Department of Transportation is focusing during our review of the proposed merger of American and US Airways." We certainly support this position, however, it seems incompatible with the realities of a divestiture requirement. The pursuit of profitability in a highly competitive market means that air carriers, including the new American, will not always share the department's priorities when assigning routes to their limited slot allocations at Reagan.

The result is that divestiture will diminish consumer choice for those living in or near small and medium-sized markets and increase consumer choice for those living in or near large markets. We oppose policy that creates this type of inequitable treatment. Please consider these concerns in your ongoing review.

Source