United's Chief Takes Fight with American to White House with Merger Pitch

For more than a decade, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has argued that the U.S. airline industry can support only two true global premium carriers. Now, he has taken that view to the White House — floating the idea of a merger ​with his fiercest rival, American Airlines.

Kirby's plan can be traced back to Dec. 9, 2013 — the day the American-US Airways merger closed. At the time, Kirby was a senior executive ‌at American. In March 2025, Kirby recounted at a New York conference his long-ago conversation with his then-team at American about how the airline industry would evolve.

"There's only room in the country for two successful premium airlines," Kirby recalled saying. "We're going to push United… out of Chicago."

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