A bankruptcy court judge authorized a lawsuit settlement for the American Airlines and US Airways merger, which aimed to stop the acquisition. USA Today reported Wednesday.
Wednesday's news was the final step needed to bring the combination of the world's biggest airline to reality.
"One must assume the anti-competitive concerns ... have been satisfactorily addressed," Judge Sean Lane from the United States Bankruptcy Court's Southern District in New York told USA Today.
The two airlines will also now give up stations at Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Airport, in a move that will decrease the company's departures 15 percent. Stations will also be vacated at New York's La Guardia for a seven percent slash.
"Today's rulings by the court are another important step in our path toward emerging from restructuring and closing our planned merger with US Airways," Mike Trevino, an American Airlines spokesman, said in a statement. "With the court's rulings today, we now intend to close the merger on Dec. 9."
The airlines will also move from two gates at Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, and Miami, and keep their main bases for a minimum of three years. Operations will also continue in Virginia, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee for a minimal five year period.
The two sides moved the date to when the airlines, and department could end the agreement that would combine the two air travel companies.
The justice department said Aug. 13 that if the two airline companies merged, there would be an increase in fares, and fees, limit the choices consumers make when traveling by air, and create a situation where over 80 percent of domestic airline travel would be run by the top four airline companies in the United States The Wall Street Journal reported.
