Groton -The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it will not challenge a proposal by Columbia Fuel Services Inc. and Lanmar Aviation Inc., the only providers of flight support services at Groton-New London Airport, to combine their fuel and hangar resources and form Mystic Jet Center.

In a letter to the two companies, Renata B. Hesse, the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, wrote that "Based on parties' representations, it does not appear likely that the proposed joint venture between Columbia and Lanmar will produce anticompetitive effects."

Columbia and Lanmar had maintained that while Mystic Jet Center will be the solitary, but not exclusive, fixed-base operator at the airport, "it will not be able to impose supra-competitive prices due to sufficient competitive pressure from several sources," according to the justice department.