The US government recently revoked the interstate certificate authorities of four carriers – AirTran Airways, Continental Airlines, US Airways and Virgin America – that have long since been acquired by other major US airlines and ceased flying passengers.
The move comes more than seven years after Virgin America, the most recent of the defunct carriers to operate, stopped flying in April 2018, following its acquisition by Alaska Airlines the prior year.
The US Department of Transportation revoked the certificates with an order dated 3 September, reflecting the “cessation of operations by these former air carriers following past mergers and acquisitions”.
DOT regulations provide that, “if an air carrier does not have its fitness re-determined and resume operations within one year of the date of its cessation, its certificate authority will be revoked for dormancy”.
It is unclear why the DOT allowed those airlines’ interstate authorities to remain active for so long after they ceased operating.
Southwest Airlines completed a phase-out of the low-cost AirTran brand in December 2014, more than three years after closing a deal to acquire its competitor for about $1.4 billion.
The previously Orlando-headquartered carrier’s last flight used a Boeing 717 from Atlanta to Tampa, the same route as its first flight in 1993.
Continental and United Airlines disclosed plans to merge in 2010 via a stock swap, intending at the time to create a combined airline serving 370 destinations.
The DOT approved the deal in 2011, creating the short-lived United Continental Holdings company. Continental, a storied airline that formed in 1934, stopped operating in March 2012.
Then, in the largest airline merger in US history, American Airlines swallowed US Airways in a deal valued at roughly $11 billion. Phoenix-headquartered US Airways consolidated its operations with those of American and stopped flying in October 2015.
After decades of consolidation, the “Big Four” US carriers – American, Delta Air Lines, Southwest and United – have in recent years become juggernauts deemed by some analysts as too big to fail, though Delta and United have pulled ahead of the pack in terms of consistent profitability.
