Here?s US Airways? defense of its merger with American Airlines | Airline Biz Blog
US/AA respond to the complaint. Here's the last paragraph.
The Court’s review of the plaintiffs’ challenge to this merger should not be an evaluation of the few aspects of the intensely competitive airline industry plaintiffs do not like, or a comparison to some hypothetical state of the airline industry that plaintiffs would prefer. It must be a determination of whether this airline merger would result in a “substantial lessening of competition” relative to what would happen absent the merger. But rather than considering how this merger will create robust competition in the future, or how blocking the merger will impede competitive forces, plaintiffs rely on rhetoric and innuendo. The Complaint makes broad, unsupported claims about past industry coordination and cobbles together out-of-context statements in an effort to suggest by anecdote what the plaintiffs cannot support with analysis. This skewed and incomplete focus ignores the current realities of the airline industry. Detailed evidence will show that this merger is about growth and improved competition—a bigger network, new flight options, more jobs, and millions of additional customers each year who will choose the more competitive new American.