United CEO Slams Door on Consolidation, Calls JetBlue Speculation ‘Idiotic’

United Airlines will not pursue any merger or acquisition, at least for the foreseeable future, and any speculation that it may do so is “idiotic.”

That’s according to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, who spoke on Wednesday at Bernstein’s 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York.

The comments come after Kirby floated the idea of a merger with American Airlines earlier this year, a proposal that American CEO Robert Isom rejected, and many others called out for being bad for the aviation industry and for American travelers.

While the American merger idea had already been squashed, there has been some recent speculation that United could possibly pursue a takeover of JetBlue, but Kirby shut that down, calling it “mathematically close to impossible” in New York on Wednesday because of the work that would need to be done on JetBlue’s margins in order to make the math work.

As for the rest of the market, Kirby said that United will not pursue any other smaller or ultra-low-cost carriers, many of which are struggling to absorb soaring operational hits from volatile jet fuel prices driven by the ongoing war in Iran. Kirby also predicted that lower-cost airlines will ultimately have to get “materially smaller” and retreat from major airline hubs back to their core niche leisure markets just to survive.