The merger caps a wave of consolidation that has helped put U.S. airlines on more solid financial footing.
The widely expected deal has been more than a year in the making. American, a unit of AMR Corp, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2011, and US Airways began its pursuit of a merger in early 2012.
(Reporting by Karen Jacobs in Atlanta and Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore)