American Airlines, US Airways merge into global giant

Feb 14, 2013 | Biz/Tech

airlines

American Airlines and US Airways have merged to form the world’s largest airline. Image via Wikicommons.

Compiled by Jonathan Zettel

AMR corp. and US Airways Group have agreed to merge in a $11-billion deal to create the world’s largest air carrier company.

The two airlines will fly under the American Airways banner and become two per cent larger than their largest competitor United Airlines, reported The Globe and Mail.

“It has been the most successful airline restructuring in history, and we had been very focused from the outset on creating the most value for our owners,” AMR CEO Tom Horton told Reuters Thursday.

The merger means that 86 per cent of American air traffic will be run by 4 major airlines, the Washington Post reported.

The new fleet will consist of 950 planes, 6,500 daily flights and have a total revenue of $39-billion.

The deal still has to go through anti-trust regulators, to ensure adequate competition remains, the CBC reported.

Canadian-based manufacturer Bombardier currently makes the CJR-200 and the CJR-700 for American Airlines and can expect the merger to provide more revenue in the long-term, Benoit Poirier, an analyst at Desjardins Securities in Montreal, told the Financial Post, Thursday.