I smell a small mouse in this mix.  That mouse, hardly a rat, is Virgin America.

From the Department of Justice announcement on the settlement of the lawsuit with US Airways and American Airlines:

“Rights and interests to two airport gates and associated ground facilities at each of  Boston Logan, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas Love Field, Los Angeles International and Miami International.”

I think that someone wants Virgin America to get access at the airports it has openly spoken of.  Virgin America is a service darling in that offers a superior inflight service experience combined with an LCC pricing scheme.

I think that some or all of these cities will find Virgin America getting the use of these at a pre-arranged price.  The DoJ will come off looking like a prince for getting Virgin America, arguably the smallest of LCCs right now, a place at the table.

But the airline, American Airlines, could care less. Virgin America isn’t big enough to introduce pricing power into those markets the way a larger, more established national airline could.  It’s a deal that, if it works out that way, does nothing to impact American Airlines and which does nothing to substantially introduce competition.

My guess:

I think Virgin America will acquire the gates and facilities in Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.  Maybe Boston as well.

Virgin America already has a proper footprint at DFW airport.  So I do wonder who might be interested in those gates at Dallas Love Field.  It would be egregiously bad to award those to Southwest although I’m sure that Southwest would love to have them.

I actually believe that Southwest is constrained from getting those gates but readers are free to correct me.

Filed under: Airline News, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
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