Southwest Airlines and Virgin American will purchase the take-off and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport that US Airways Group Inc and American Airlines must sell as part of their agreement to merge, three sources said on Wednesday. Last month, US Airways and American agreed to divest 17 pairs of slots at LaGuardia, a busy airport with limited capacity, as well as certain other assets, as part of a settlement of an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department.The sources, who asked not to be named to preserve business relationships, did not say how many of the 17 pairs of slots each airline would purchase. Terms of the sales are not known.Southwest, US Airways and American failed to comment on the question of LaGuardia slot pairs. Virgin America did not return calls or email requesting comment.In the deal made in November the two airlines also agreed to give up 52 pairs of takeoff and landing slots at Reagan National Airport, just outside Washington, D.C.
US Airways Group, Inc. (US Airways Group) is a holding company whose primary business activity is the operation of a network air carrier through its wholly owned subsidiaries US Airways, Piedmont Airlines, Inc. Shares of LCC fell by 2.32% or $-0.52/share to $21.87. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $11.97 and as high as $25.49. On average, 7568370 shares of LCC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 16674035.
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