00:00The door is officially shut on a merger between American Airlines and United Airlines.
00:03Just getting a statement from the United Airlines CEO, Scott Kirby, just moments ago.
00:07Yeah, he's saying this is very personal.
00:09It's a very different kind of press release, which is first person.
00:13Over the last two weeks, there's been a lot of commentary about a potential merger between United and American.
00:17And to be direct, here's what happened.
00:19I approached American about exploring a combination because I thought we could do something incredible for customers together.
00:24He was confident with this combination.
00:26He was hoping to pitch the story to American, but they declined to engage and instead responded by publicly closing
00:31the door.
00:32And without a willing partner, something this big simply can't get done.
00:35It goes on, the statement does, and we'll bring you more headlines from it.
00:38But ultimately, it raises the question, something can't get done with American, but can something get done with someone else
00:44in the sector?
00:45And it seems like there's an open door, given the fact that budget airlines have their hands out to the
00:49government looking for some sort of bailout.
00:51Can you see a wave of consolidation?
00:53Is this administration amenable to things that perhaps the previous administration was not?
00:57That really is the question.
00:59As we see other announcements for mergers, there's a huge wave of mega mergers that has been emerging in 2026.
01:04Does the airline industry enter in stage left?
01:07What I find as interesting as this potential United America, as I was calling it, to John's point, maybe there
01:12is just consolidation elsewhere.
01:14And we had an airline analyst on talking about the fact that maybe if they want an end when it
01:18comes to JFK, they would need to look at something like a JetBlue.
01:21What I find interesting about this statement is that not only is the CEO here talking about this potential and
01:27how it's very personal, he went himself to go pitch this, but goes through the benefits of what the combination
01:33could have produced, potentially an appetizer for maybe another airline.
01:37I'm just eyeballing this, but two thirds, maybe close to 80 percent of the statement is about a rationale for
01:43further consolidation in the sector, which to me, yes, closes the door on American, but leaves the door wide open
01:48to a combination with someone somewhere down the line.
01:51Yeah, JetBlue, someone that people have talked about, right?
01:54Who are the other airlines that might be potential suitors or that clearly this is the ambition over at United?
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