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The Department of Justice was particularly concerned that the newly-combined airline would have 69 percent of the takeoff and landings at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It also
-- for the first time -- looked beyond non-stop routes, saying connecting flights between 1,043 city pairs would no longer have an acceptable level of competition. Some of those routes see very few passengers. For instance, there are five people, on average, each day flying between Little Rock, Ark. and Harrisburg, Pa., and another five flying in the other direction, according to government data. The Department of Justice has suggested bringing the case to trial no sooner than March 3. American and US Airways say such a delay will cost them millions of dollars and potentially kill the merger. They have proposed a start date of Nov. 12 for the trial in Washington, D.C. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly will meet with the parties Friday.
[Associated
Press;
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