American Airlines has come out of bankruptcy protection while its new partner U.S. Airways joins it in the latest airline merger the Associated Press reported Monday.
''Our goal here is to go and restore American Airlines to its position as the greatest airline in the world,'' Doug Parker, CEO of the American Airlines group told the AP. "The largest airline as recently as 2008, American struggled through a decade of huge losses and fell behind United and Delta in size. Airline prices are like prices in other businesses they track with supply and demand, and we're not reducing any of the supply."
The news is the latest development since a bankruptcy court judge authorized a lawsuit settlement for the acquisition.
The two airlines will also now give up stations at Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Airport, in a move that will decrease the company's departures 15 percent. Stations will also be vacated at New York's La Guardia for a seven percent slash.
The airlines will also move from two gates at Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, and Miami, and keep their main bases for a minimum of three years. Operations will also continue in Virginia, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee for a minimal five year period. Employees from both airlines will be implemented over the next two years.
Both airlines moved the date to when they and the justice department could end the agreement that would initially combine the two air travel companies.
The justice department said Aug. 13 that if the two airline companies merged, there would be an increase in fares, and fees, limit the choices consumers make when traveling by air, and create a situation where over 80 percent of domestic airline travel would be run by the top four airline companies in the United States The Wall Street Journal reported.
