That hasn't discouraged the airlines from trying, however. In some industries, there's widespread acceptance of the principle that bigger is better. Nobody will ever be able to tell me I'm better served by mergers and by reducing competition. American Airlines began negotiations to merge with Northwest Airlines, which handles 75 percent of the passenger load at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. They don't want to do this.
Less competition is bad.
The U.S. Justice Department is suing Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines to break up a deal announced two years ago in which Northwest purchased 51 percent controlling interest in Continental. Right now, however, Congress is content to let the Justice Department focus on the wave of mergers. We're talking about it, but the general working assumption is it's not likely to happen so why waste time talking about it.