American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. may know by the end of the year whether their merger can proceed after they won a fast-track trial schedule for the U.S. lawsuit seeking to block the deal, Bloomberg News reported Saturday. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly set a Nov. 25 trial date during a hearing in federal court in Washington yesterday, saying that the March date proposed by the government was “too far off.” The ruling is a win for the airlines, which had sought a Nov. 12 trial date and said that waiting until March would put the merger at risk. The Justice Department had sought a March trial, while the airlines had pressed for November to resolve the case that is keeping AMR stuck in bankruptcy. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane, who is overseeing AMR’s bankruptcy case, delayed approval of its reorganization plan at a hearing Aug. 29 in Manhattan, during which he said arguments in favor of approval were “fairly persuasive.” He set the next hearing date for Sept. 12. AMR has argued that the antitrust trial doesn’t need to be completed for its plan to receive confirmation because the proposal is conditioned on obtaining regulatory approval and can’t take effect without it.
