United–American Airlines merger—What we know so far

United Airlines said on Monday it had ended its pursuit of a merger ‌with American Airlines after it declined to engage following an initial approach.

"I was hoping to pitch that story to American, but they declined to engage and instead responded by publicly closing the door," United CEO Scott Kirby said.

Reports of a potential merger between United Airlines and American Airlines have sparked major industry attention, but no deal has been agreed upon or formally announced.

It comes as United Airline's CEO Scott Kirby confirmed on Monday that he approached American Airlines about a potential merger, a possibility American rejected.

“I approached American about exploring a combination because I thought we could do something incredible for customers together,” Kirby said in a statement. He said he shared his “big, bold vision” because he was confident it could win regulatory approval.

American rejected the idea and its CEO, Robert Isom, last week, who said such a merger would be bad for customers and “anticompetitive.”

Kirby raised the idea of a combination with American during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late February, people familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this ‌month.

The meeting was scheduled to discuss the future of Washington's Dulles Airport.

Combining two of the largest U.S. network carriers would have marked the biggest consolidation move in more than a decade, further tightening a domestic market already dominated by four similarly sized players.

However, the scale of a potential tie-up raised concerns among analysts and experts about the antitrust implications of such a deal.

He said that “American’s public comments make it clear that a merger like this is off the table for the foreseeable future” but outlined his vision for a combined airline.

Kirby reiterated that the country has a deficit with foreign airlines that fly more than half of the long-haul seats into the U.S., with most of the customers being Americans.

“The combined scale of United and American would be a better way to compete with foreign carriers,” he said.

Additionally, US President Donald Trump also said he was against the idea of a combination last week.

“I don’t like having them merge,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday morning. He said he would, however, like someone to buy struggling discount carrier Spirit, but he also suggested that the federal government could “help that one out.”

Notably, the United-American Airlines merger is currently only a proposal that was rejected and has no formal deal in place.

However, if revived, it would face major regulatory and political obstacles.