American Moves to Block UAL Deal With Pan Am

American Airlines moved today to block rival UAL Corp.’s $400-million purchase of Pan Am’s London routes.

In a letter to Pan Am Chairman Thomas G. Plaskett, American Chairman Robert Crandall said his company wants to bid on the routes, and he suggested that government regulators might not approve the UAL-Pan Am deal.

“As I have told you many times in the past, most recently in our telephone conversation of Monday, Oct. 22, we have for some time been interested in acquiring a number of Pan Am’s international route authorities, including those to the United Kingdom,” Crandall said in the publicly released letter to Pan Am.

The agreement with UAL, parent of United Airlines, was announced Tuesday night.

Officials at New York-based Pan Am and Chicago-based UAL had no immediate comment.

Crandall said American could pursue “a transaction superior to the proposed United transaction,” but he offered no specifics. He said Pan Am officials owed it to their stockholders and creditors to give American a chance to make a competing bid.

Pan Am has suffered big losses in recent years, and the deal with UAL came after fruitless efforts to find a merger partner or buyer for the airline.

The London routes now bring about $500 million in gross revenues.