American Airlines and US Airways merged Monday to form the world's largest airline company.
American Airlines stock returned to Wall Street on Monday, emerging from bankruptcy after completing the merger with US Airways to form the world's largest airline company.
The merger of American Airlines and US Airways forms a company with more passengers than previous industry leader, United Continental Holdings , which itself was formed with a merger.
The deal cleared a series of legal hurdles, including an antitrust lawsuit this fall from the Justice Department and a last-minute challenge from a consumer group. It also had to win the approval of the bankruptcy judge overseeing the reorganization of AMR Corp, American's former parent company, which filed for bankruptcy in November 2011.
The airlines and Justice Department settled the antitrust suit last month, and the Supreme Court declined late Saturday to take up the challenge that the merger will lead to higher airfares and fewer choices for passengers.
Related: American, US Air cleared to land merger
The new American Airlines trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol AAL . Most of the shares were distributed to US Airways shareholders, but in an unusual step for a company emerging from bankruptcy, American's former shareholders got 0.0665 share of AAL stock for each of their former shares of AMR.
Passengers likely will not see effects of the merger immediately. They will continue to book flights under the American Airlines and US Airways brands. Ticketing and frequent flier programs are expected to be combined -- at the earliest -- in 2014.
Related: What the settlement means for fares
To secure the deal, the Justice Department required the airlines to give up some access at two major airports. The Justice Department said this would give opportunities to low-fare airlines.
Both Southwest and JetBlue will now expand flights at New York's LaGuardia and Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National airports. Southwest has already said it plans to add six round-trip flights between LaGuardia and yet-to-be-announced airports.
A 2012 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers found airfares 'have not increased significantly' since 2004, when the first in a series of mergers produced the landscape of major carriers that exists today.
Related: The runway to the final four
The airlines argued the merger would provide customers more options.
American had returned to profitability even before the merger was completed. In July, it reported a record monthly profit.
First Published: December 9, 2013: 10:45 AM ET
Posted by Unknown on Monday, December 9, 2013 - Rating: 4.5
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