US Airways Angles for a Merger With American

(Update: AMR agreed with unsecured creditors that beginning this summer it will explore strategic options involving the airline’s future ownership, Bloomberg News reported on May 11.)

Bankruptcy is supposed to be a time when a financially strapped business can sit back and restructure free from outside pressures. Not so for AMR, the parent of American Airlines. In the nearly six months since the nation’s No. 3 airline filed for protection from creditors, American has brushed wings with rival-cum-suitor US Airways Group at almost every turn. Although it has yet to make a formal buyout offer to AMR, US Airways has gone ahead and negotiated labor accords with American’s three largest unions—which agreed to support the smaller carrier’s possible bid to take over American in bankruptcy. Now US Airways is making public overtures to American’s creditors, who were owed $29.6 billion when it entered bankruptcy, arguing that they stand to fare better with it in the pilot’s seat.