Alaska Air’s $4bn bid for Virgin America has been cleared for takeoff by US antitrust regulators, according to an announcement on Tuesday. The US Department of Justice said that, in a settlement pending court approval, Alaska had agreed to scale back part of its codeshare agreement with American Airlines to address regulators’ antitrust concerns, particularly those where Alaska and Virgin already compete. The transaction has been valued at $4b, US officials said. When completed, the deal will see Alaska, currently the sixth-largest US airline, and Virgin, the ninth largest, combine to become the fifth-largest US carrier. “Today’s settlement ensures that Alaska has the incentive to take the fight to American and use Virgin’s assets to grow its network in ways that benefit competition and consumers,” said Renata Hesse, acting assistant attorney general in the DoJ’s antitrust division, noting that smaller carriers like Alaska and Virgin serve as competitive checks on larger rivals. Alaska CE Brad Tilden said the company “couldn’t be more excited” about getting US regulatory approval. The company said it expects the deal to close “in the very near future,” as it still faces antitrust litigation brought by private plaintiffs in California federal court.<br/>
unaligned
Bolivia has detained the chief executive of the LaMia airline whose plane crashed last week in Columbia killing 71 people. CEO Gustavo Vargas and two others were detained in Santa Cruz for questioning over the crash. Bolivia suspended LaMia’s operating license last week after the fatal crash of the BAe 146/Avro RJ85 carrying the Brazilian Chapecoense football team on its way to Colombia for a Copa Sudamericana match against Atlético Nacional. A tape of the cockpit conversation with air traffic control appears to suggest that the aircraft had suffered a total electrical failure after running out of fuel.<br/>
A woman has agreed to settle her lawsuit against JetBlue Airways after it mixed up her 5-year-old son with another boy and flew him to the wrong city, her lawyer said Tuesday. “With regard to the matter of Maribel Martinez, et al v. Jet Blue Airways the parties have agreed to amicably resolve this matter,” attorney Sanford Rubenstein said. Details of the settlement weren’t disclosed. New York-based JetBlue Airways declined to comment. Martinez had charged in the lawsuit that she suffered “great emotional distress, extreme fear, horror, mental shock, mental anguish and psychological trauma” when she went to meet her son’s Aug. 17 flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport and he wasn’t on it. The little boy, Andy Martinez, had been mistakenly put on a flight to Boston’s Logan Airport instead of the flight to Kennedy. According to the court papers, JetBlue staffers at Logan escorted Andy to a woman he had never seen before and told him he was being reunited with his mother. Meanwhile, a boy who was supposed to be on the flight to Boston had been put on Andy’s New York-bound flight and was presented to Martinez. Both boys had flown out of Cibao International Airport in the Dominican Republic. It took three hours for JetBlue to sort out what had happened and put the mother and son on the phone with each other, the lawsuit charged.<br/>
Alaska Airlines announced the cancellation of 35 flights from 6 a.m. to noon on Tuesday due to wintry weather conditions. In a statement late Monday, Alaska officials said additional snow in the forecast overnight, along with colder temperatures create the potential for ice at the airport and on the planes. That requires deicing of planes before they can take off. The airline said it hoped the cancellations would alleviate some of the morning congestion at the airport and allow crews enough time to complete deicing duties. Alaska did not say which specific flights or destinations were impacted. The airline said all passengers affected by the cancellations would be notified. <br/>