USA: US Airways Seals Merger With American Airlines

When US Airways Flight 1939 touches down in Philadelphia on Saturday morning, it will mark the end of that company and symbolically complete its two-and-a-half year merger with Fort Worth-based American Airlines.

"On Oct. 17 we become one airline in our customers' eyes. All flights will operate under the AA code and all customer policies and procedures will be fully aligned, creating a seamless travel experience," said American CEO Doug Parker in a note to employees this week.

Parker thanked them for reaching this milestone.

The final flight of U.S. Airways carries its own symbolism. The flight number – 1939 – honors the founding year of its predecessor, All-American Airways, which began delivering mail between Western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley using a single plane.

Flight 1939 departed Philadelphia Friday morning at 9:05 a.m. CDT and flies to Charlotte, Phoenix and San Francisco before returning to Philadelphia at 5:18 a.m. CDT on Saturday.

To prepare for a single reservations system, American said it conducted six full-scale tests with almost 5,000,000 mock reservations, operated more than 30 regional test flights, and checked 9,000 computers and kiosks.

At 12:01 a.m. on Saturday in each time zone, American will officially make the switch to the single website and mobile app. USAirways.com will no longer exist and automatically redirect users to AA.com. By Sunday, the US Airways mobile app will be disabled.

American said it already changed the branding in a lot of locations. After the last US Airways flight leaves each gate across the system on Friday, branding and signage will change at each gate.

At DFW, there are only four US Airways flights in Terminal E. Still, some signage could remain after the switch-over. At DFW, the airport controls signs on the curbs and roads.

The merger between American Airlines and U.S. Airways will be complete after U.S. Airways makes its final flight Friday night. David Schechter has more.

Travelers flying this weekend already have their new reservation. On Saturday morning, the only difference they will see is checking in on a new system.

American set up a command center on Wednesday at its Fort Worth headquarters to prepare for any glitches.

Just in case, one expert says, US Airway travelers should take extra precautions.

“If you had a US Airways booked flight and you’re leaving tomorrow check in today. Because if you check in today [...] you should be fine,” Mark Drusch said. “If you have a problem, you’ve got between now and tomorrow’s flight to call American and get it resolved.”

The move to a single booking platform is more than two-and-a -half years in the making.

In February 2013, American CEO Tom Horton joined US Airways CEO Doug Parker on a small stage at DFW Airport to announce the merger during American's bankruptcy. The board picked Parker to lead the new airline.

Since then, American began repainting US Airways jets, frequent flyer accounts were combined, and thousands of systems, applications, policies and procedures were aligned. In April of this year, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a single operating certificate.

The merger combined more than 100,000 employees serving 187 million customers a year. On average, the new American now operates 6,700 daily flights to 330 destinations in 54 countries with the largest airline fleet in the world.

The merged airline also grew from five to nine hubs: Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

A single reservation system doesn't mark the end of merger work. American still has to integrate flight operating systems for crew and aircraft scheduling along with merging aircraft maintenance systems.