United Airlines has recorded a special charge of $434 million in the second quarter to write of the now intangible assets of its Newark Liberty International Airport slots. Once the slots at the airport were valuable since the airport had restrictions on landing and takeoff hours, they will be lifted from October following an April ruling by the FAA.
United said that the FAA’s action “has impaired the entire value of its Newark slots because the slots will no longer be the mechanism that governs take-off and landing rights.”
In November, the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the Delta deal. “The FAA’s action [to lift slot restrictions] opens up Newark to more robust competition and achieves the very outcome we sought in litigation: protecting consumers from United’s plan to enlarge its monopoly at Newark,” Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer said in April.