The U.S. regional-airline industry could be set for more consolidation in the wake of deal-making among network carriers, according to the head of AMR Corp.'s American Eagle commuter unit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. A long-planned spinoff of American Eagle also remains a possibility even after the planned merger of American Airlines parent AMR and US Airways Group Inc., though Eagle Chief Executive Dan Garton said that the initial priorities are developing a new aircraft-fleet plan and exploring how the partners' regional operations can be "blended." Regional airlines are the backbone of the U.S. domestic-airline industry, expanding rapidly over the past two decades to account for just over half of all passengers, feeding them to big hubs such as Chicago O'Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth from smaller airports. American Eagle is the largest regional carrier wholly owned by a U.S. network airline, and last year it accounted for 95 percent of the domestic passengers fed onto American's flights.
