THE NEW AMERICANThe combination of American Airlines and US Airway created the world’s largest airline on Monday.• Headquarters: Fort Worth, Texas.• No. of flights: 6,700 daily flights, including nine daily departures from Chattanooga• Cities served: 336 in 56 countries• Operating revenue: $40 billion• Staff: More than 100,000 worldwideSource: American Airlines
FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy protection and US Airways culminated its long pursuit of a merger partner as the two completed their deal Monday to create the world’s biggest airline.
It’s the latest in a series of mergers that will leave four airlines controlling more than 80 percent of the U.S. air-travel market. With less competition, the airlines have successfully limited the number of seats, boosting prices and returning to profitability.
American’s old parent, AMR Corp., is gone, replaced by the new American Airlines Group Inc. CEO Doug Parker remotely rang the opening bell of the Nasdaq Stock Market, flanked on stage by executives and labor leaders of both airlines and in front of a crowd of cheering employees.
“Our goal here is to go and restore American Airlines to its position as the greatest airline in the world,” Parker said. The largest airline as recently as 2008, American struggled through a decade of huge losses and fell behind United and Delta in size.