Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Reports: US Airways-American merger could come next week

A local television news station in Dallas is reporting that a US Airways-American Airlines merger could be announced as early as Monday. The Wall Street Journal is hedging a bit more, and writes that a merger is in the final stages and could be completed "within the next week or two."

Jason Whitely of WFAA-TV says the announcement could come after the board of directors at AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, meets to consider the deal again on Monday.

The Journal, on the other hand, cautions that, "the merger negotiations remained fluid and could fall apart...Significant points of the deal, including how to split ownership of the airline and how to arrange board seats and management ranks, remain unresolved."

The combined company would still be called American Airlines and be headquartered in Fort Worth, but would likely be led by US Airways CEO Doug Parker and his management team.

But, as aviation analyst Henry Harteveldt told me recently: "I'll believe it when I see it." The second week in February has been the rumored merger date for some time. However, at least four other rumored merger dates have slipped past with no news, so until it's public, travelers and employees will remain in a holding pattern.

Twitter lit up with reaction to the news Wednesday evening:


I really really hope the US Airways / American Airlines mergercreates a company called U.S. Americans Air. Miss South Carolina is a prophet

Soon only one airline:"Delta United American US Airways"

US Airways and American Airlines merger happening soon. Can't wait to sit back and watch this one. 



1 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are still a few hurdles to overcome before this is a done deal. For one thing, the Feds need to approve. But if a merger does finally happen, one can only hope that it is kind to CLT. Also, it might be nice if the best qualities of each carrier are combined while the worst are dumped. A merged airline needs to be just that...merged. The biggest mistake would be if one culture is dumped for another because egos get in the way.