Continental Airlines will give up 36 slots at its Newark hub to Southwest Airlines in a bid to address antitrust concerns for its deal with United Airlines, the airlines said Friday.
The deal gives low-cost carrier Southwest the right to operate up to 18 daily roundtrip flights with some flights starting in March 2011. A full schedule is expected by June 2011.
The deal is contingent on the closing of a merger between Continental and United, a unit of UAL Corp, by November 30.
The two airlines said in May that UAL could buy Continental for $3.17 billion in an all-stock deal to form the world’s largest airline. The new airline would be known as United Airlines and be based in Chicago.
