United CEO Scott Kirby Insists Critics Misunderstand His American Merger Vision

In April 2026, news broke about how United CEO Scott Kirby reportedly approached the Trump administration about the concept of merging with American, and forming a “flag” carrier for the United States. Days later, American management publicly rejected this concept, which caused Kirby to publicly make his case for a merger with American. Months later, it came out that Kirby had also approached Delta about the concept of a merger. There’s now an interesting update on this — Kirby is still hell-bent on this concept, and thinks everyone else is wrong. Kirby insists people don’t understand his merger visionKirby’s steadfastness is admirable, or somethingBottom line Kirby insists people don’t understand his merger vision The Dallas Morning News has a fascinating interview with Kirby. For those curious about the connection here, keep in mind that Kirby lives in Dallas (he never moved, since being fired from American over a decade ago). Kirby does so many interviews that you’d think he has a movie dropping in theaters soon, and he always has a lot of interesting takes on things. What’s most interesting to me about this interview is how Kirby talks more about the merger concept he had with American. According to Kirby’s version of events: News of this became public when Trump administration officials (or someone with knowledge of the matter) leaked details about how Kirby had approached them Kirby claims he had engaged in conversations with American management, and while they were “skeptical,” “they talked to us and they hadn’t said no” American then released a public statement rejecting the concept of a merger — Kirby had reportedly been texting with American CEO Robert Isom, and Kirby told Isom that he saw the public statement rejecting the idea, and was surprised by that But here’s the most interesting part of Kirby’s statement: “We were disappointed that it leaked and then I saw all of the feedback of what people said about how possible it was. All of the criticism about this would not get through regulatory muscle was looking at it through a traditional commodity lens, and I am the one person who knows what we were planning to do for 100% certainty because I’m the one that was going to do it.” So in April 2026, following American’s public denial of the merger, Kirby was at luxury resort Amangiri in Utah. While his wife was at the spa, he began writing a message about why he thought a merger made sense, which ended up being published online. Kirby’s conviction was seemingly strengthened by what parents would tell him at his kid’s soccer game: “You know I live in Dallas, for the first month [after the message was released] every time I was at my kid’s soccer game, some stranger would come up to me and say is it really dead, can you please buy [American]. It actually made me even more firm in my belief that there’s a hunger [from] customers for great customer service. That deal would have been a home run for customers.” Scott Kirby is convinced everyone is wrong about the merger Kirby’s steadfastness is admirable, or something I have a ton of respect for what Kirby has done at United, and how he has transformed the airline, though he’s also a puzzling guy, in terms of what he shares with the public. Keep in mind that before he got into the airline industry, Kirby was big into gambling. When Kirby makes certain statements in an interview, one can’t help but wonder if he just can’t hold back and is being honest, or if he’s largely bluffing. I do believe Kirby cares a lot about (broadly) offering a quality product, and I can concede that if American and United merged, I do think the quality of the overall product would be better. Well, or at least that would be the case in comparison to American today, though we know the airline is also working on improving, and is trying to become more like United. Here’s the fundamental disagreement I have with Kirby, though. I know both Delta and United like to think of themselves as these cool lifestyle brands that consumers really like. I can also appreciate the concept of trying to create brand loyal customers and the attempted decommodification of the industry. But that fails to consider that while some percentage of customers are loyal and love an airline, a majority of people are still just looking to get between two points with the best overall value, which we’d define as a combination of the best schedule, price, and product. If you create one US flag carrier that has around 40% of the market share in the country, that would without a doubt lead to higher fares in the long run. And that’s not even something Kirby seems to disagree with, conceptually. He has long argued that airfare has become too cheap in recent times, and that the fare increases we’re seeing due to higher oil prices will stick around even when oil prices go down. Kirby points out how most airlines aren’t profitable, so fares will need to go up for that to change (while of course discounting the billions in profits that airlines make through their loyalty programs). I’ve long argued that we need as much competition as possible in the US among airlines that are scaled sufficiently to have lucrative loyalty programs. The loyalty programs essentially subsidize the flights, and it’s a reason that I’ve argued consolidation among smaller carriers is beneficial. We’re better off having six airlines that all have robust loyalty programs and can afford to compete, vs. 10 airlines, where half of them are turning losses, due to a lack of sufficient scale to have a lucrative loyalty program. Lastly, Kirby claims that people are wrong with regards to this deal getting regulatory approval, because they are looking at things through a traditional commodity lens. Whether Kirby likes it or not, that is how the law is written. If you take the Sherman Act (which was used to block the JetBlue and Spirit merger), the idea is it’s intended to promote competition. The Sherman Act doesn’t say “massively reducing competition is fine if some number of people are happy about it.” Kirby is consistent with his narrative, if nothing else Bottom line United CEO Scott Kirby still insists that a merger with American makes a lot of sense. In a recent interview, he shared how he wrote the letter explaining his merger justification while at Amangiri. He also insists that everyone else just doesn’t understand his vision, and he thinks the deal would get approval, because people are incorrectly looking at this through “a traditional commodity lens,” and only he knows with “100% certainty” what is being planned. What do you make of Kirby’s latest merger comments?