President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he opposed a possible merger between United Airlines and American Airlines.
Trump was asked during an early morning appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box about a proposed merger between the two airline giants.
“I don’t like it, no. I don’t mind mergers, I’d love someone to buy Spirit, as an example,” Trump said. “I’d love somebody to buy Spirit, it’s 14,000 jobs, and maybe the federal government should help that one out.”
“But with American it’s doing fine, and United is doing very well, I know the United people, they’re doing very well,” the president added. “I don’t like having them merge.”
Trump said that mergers could be problematic, citing issues that had arisen in the aerospace and defense industries.
“It’s just like all of these aerospace, defense companies and aerospace companies, we used to have hundreds of them, and now we have a very small number, and you get one bid, and it makes them lazy,” he said.
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United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby reportedly floated a possible merger between his company and American during a White House meeting with Trump in February. Talk of a deal drew criticism from lawmakers in Congress over concerns that consolidation would lead to a rise in cost for consumers.
“If United and American were to merge, airlines would face less pressure from rivals to keep the cost of flying down, and airlines across the industry could raise ticket prices and fees even higher,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote in a recent letter to the two airlines.