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 The company's chairman challenged that figure.
The department, in a routine filing, also asked a federal judge to
approve with no changes the settlement it reached with US Airways
and American Airlines. That settlement ended a fight over whether
the government would allow the two to merge.
The two companies formally merged in December, creating American
Airlines Group Inc, but the deal requires a judge's final approval.
The Justice Department said that American Airlines was paid more
than $425 million for the slots that it was required to sell at
Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington and New York's
LaGuardia International Airport.
But American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker said during a J.P.
Morgan investor conference on Monday that American got $381 million
in cash plus the 24 slots at New York's JFK it received in a swap
with JetBlue Corp.
He said the proceeds were "well in excess" of what American expected
to receive, adding that the slots had been appraised at about $225
million.
"I believe (that) in the DOJ (Justice Department) filing, they value
that at $425 million; that's their valuation, not ours," Parker told
the conference.
American Airlines Group was also required to divest 34 slots at New
York LaGuardia International Airport. Southwest Airlines Co won an
agreement to purchase 22 and Virgin America will buy 12.
Virgin America won eight slots at Reagan National, while New
York-based JetBlue Airways won 40 slots, including two Sunday slots.
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The Justice Department said that Southwest had declined the Sunday
slots and that they would be returned to the Federal Aviation
Administration to be reallocated.
American is also required to shed two gates each at Dallas Love
Field and airports in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Miami. Most
of those will be sold in the next few weeks, according to a source
close to the Justice Department.
In the filing with the U.S. District Court in Washington, the
Justice Department's antitrust enforcers also said that consumer
groups' objections to the merger of the two companies were without
merit.
"The remedy is a major victory for American consumers," the Justice
Department said in the filing. "By introducing new low-cost capacity
and service on numerous routes around the country, it enhances the
ability of LCCs (low cost carriers) to thwart industry coordination
among the legacy carriers."
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David
Ingram; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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