Southwest Airlines Co. and Virgin America Inc. are poised to add flights at New York’s LaGuardia Airport as American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. pull back there to settle the U.S. antitrust lawsuit against their merger, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Southwest, the biggest discount carrier, will buy 12 new flight slots, enough for six daily round trips, along with 10 slots now leased from American, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a regulatory filing. Virgin America will get 12 flight slots. The FAA said that it approved the transactions after the U.S. Justice Department required that American and US Airways divest flight rights as a condition of their merger, which is set to close on Dec. 9. Talks are under way on how American and US Airways will divest slots for 104 daily flights at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan Airport.
