Forget About Airline Mergers. Now It's All About Trading Airport Slots

The era of big U.S. airline mergers has ended, but there’s still plenty of tinkering left to do around the industry's edges. In a push to fortify the dominance of their hubs and boost profits, U.S. carriers have in recent years taken to swapping access at major airports.

The latest such proposal came Tuesday with United Airlines planning to end service at JFK International Airport this fall, exchanging its takeoff and landing slots there with Delta Air Lines, which has built JFK into one of its hubs. Delta, meanwhile, would relinquish slots at Newark to United, which counts that airport as one of its largest hubs. Neither carrier would say how many slots are involved in the swap, and the deals are subject to regulatory approval. The Justice Department isn't likely to have qualms with the changes because "the number of slots is sufficiently small and competitive positions not altered significantly," said Robert Mann, an aviation consultant and former American Airlines executive.