An American Airlines 777 is pictured landing at Dallas-Fort Worth last December. Photo: Stephen Mosley Sr. – OPShots Contributor //
AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, and US Airways Group intend to merge and create the world’s largest airline, keeping Chicago O’Hare International Airport as a hub, airline officials said Thursday.In size, the combined airlines, to be called American Airlines, would edge out Chicago-based United Airlines, assuming the $11 billion merger is approved by regulators and U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where American Airlines filed for Chapter 11 restructuring in 2011. The merger is expected to be completed in the third quarter and save $1 billion by 2015, airline executives said.The merger would culminate a wave of major-carrier consolidation that has helped put major U.S. airlines on more sound financial footing. The widely expected deal has been more than a year in the making. U.S. fliers would be left with four major airlines, American, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, which together would control about three-fourths of the U.S. market.
via New American Airlines would keep O’Hare as hub, officials say – chicagotribune.com.
