American Puts Positive Spin on Merged Results
The management of newly combined American Airlines and US Airways says that the financial benefits from their recent merger are already very evident. (Photo: American Airlines Group)
The management of newly combined American Airlines and US Airways says that the financial benefits from their recent merger are already very evident. (Photo: American Airlines Group)

Year-end  2013 financial results from the newly reconstituted American Airlines Group have quickly established that the long-awaited merger of AMR Corporation with US Airways has resulted in a carrier more viable than the sum of its previously separate parts. After clearing an initial anti-trust objection by the U.S. Justice Department, the two airlines finally completed their merger on Dec. 9, 2013. For the whole of 2013, the combined businesses reported a net profit of $1.9 billion—an almost four-fold increase on the equivalent $407 million profit the two companies earned in 2012. Similarly, for the fourth quarter of 2013 alone, the merged entity recorded a $436 million net profit, representing a marked improvement on the combined net loss of $42 million for the same period in 2012.