HMM: Experts See Inconsistencies in DOJ’s Merger Deal With Airlines.

A spokeswoman for DOJ referred Law Blog to remarks made by U.S. antitrust chief Bill Baer on Tuesday. He said the concessions would produce a whole new market dynamic, offering the discount airlines lower barriers to entry, and “providing the incentive and ability for those carriers to invest in new capacity and positioning those carriers to provide significant new competition system-wide.”

University of Tennessee law professor Maurice Stucke said he finds it hard to square that with what the government said before. The government’s complaint, for instance, talked about how Southwest was already competing against the legacy airlines in various markets but still couldn’t prevent the anticompetitive effects of earlier mergers.

The complaint also quoted a senior US Airways executive explaining to her boss in 2011: “Our employees know full well that the real competition for us is [American], [Delta], and [United]. Yes we compete with Southwest and JetBlue, but the product is different and the customer base is also different.”

Said Mr. Stucke, ”If it were just purely a slot issue, the complaint would read differently.”

Personally, I find Maurice Stucke more credible.