The next step in the American/US Airways merger trial has taken place with both sides requesting preferred court dates. The airlines have requested the trial start November 12, 91 days after the complaint was filed. DOJ, however, has requested 180 days with it starting in February.
In the motion filed with the courts, American and US Airways show that of the 16 merger challenges coming from DOJ or the FTC since 2000, 14 have gone to trial in less than 90 days. The other two were in 102 and 106 days respectively. Considering that DOJ has already had 16 months to dive into the merger, more than most, this smells of delay tactics to me.
This was brought up in the comments before. You don’t necessarily have to have a good case if you can just delay the thing the death. I’d say that appears to be DOJ’s strategy. What do you think?
Now the judge decides when to start the trial. We should know the schedule within a week. Once it goes to trial, it’s only expected to take 10 days.
