Mr. Olson's former law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, represents American in the lawsuit, while Mr. James and his former law firm, Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, have represented airline companies on issues including antitrust.
After 11 years with organized baseball, Mr. Gaherin represented airlines and other industries, and in recent years was a private arbitrator.
The government ruling comes after an extensive two-year lobbying campaign by unions and organizations representing airline pilots.
Unions representing airline employees, too, could fight the combinations, unless managements agree to better job security or better pay in some instances.
A change in president to one more sympathetic to the truculent unions that represent airline workers may make future deals harder to push through.David Castelveter of the ATA argues that the government could do more to help.
An entire cottage industry has emerged for products that help people evade the baggage-check fees, according to Kate Hanni, director of FlyersRights.org, a consumer group that represents airline passengers.
Robert Roach Jr., general vice president for transportation at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents airline mechanics, saw the action as an effort by the company to force the unions into granting more concessions, on top of two rounds agreed to in bankruptcy.
"You need two to three seconds from detecting a target to process the information in your brain and take evasive action," said Georg Fongern, a spokesman for the German Cockpit Association, which represents airline pilots.
The body that represents airline pilots in the UK has called for handheld laser pointers to be classed as offensive weapons, after a Virgin Atlantic flight to the US was forced to return to Heathrow when its co-pilot was dazzled by a laser during takeoff.
A9 Pilots' Unions Turn to Congress The unions representing airline pilots have lost a round in their fight for stricter enforcement of the limit on the hours a pilot is permitted to fly without relief, and they are turning to Congress for help.
The Air Transport Association of America, which represents airlines, took a similar tack.
