Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue Airways Corp. told regulators they’re interested in acquiring Washington, D.C., flight slots that may be available under a settlement of the U.S. lawsuit to block the American Airlines-US Airways Group Inc. merger, Bloomberg News reported today. The carriers want American and US Airways to give up as many slots as possible at Reagan National Airport. Southwest also is in discussions with the Justice Department about adding slots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, one person said. Having a market for the slots would clear a possible hurdle as AMR Corp.’s American, US Airways and the Justice Department explore resolving the antitrust lawsuit filed Aug. 13 to block the merger. A post-merger American would have an unacceptably high 69 percent of Reagan National flights, the U.S. says.
