State of Texas Drops Lawsuit Against American Airlines Concerning Merger with US Airways

Today, at a press conference inside the Admiral's Club at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced the state has dropped its opposition to the American Airlines-US Airways merger.

American Airlines CEO Tom Horton said the airline made concerning its presence in Texas, "We've made commitments for a period of three years that we will: maintain our headquarters in Dallas-Fort Worth, maintain a strong and big hub here at DFW and that we'll maintain service to these communities, including a lot of small communities, in Texas."

Abbott said maintaining air service to the smaller cities in Texas was a high priority, "The primary thing that we were seeking from the very beginning was absolute certainty and security that the 20 or more airports across the State of Texas, especially the rural airports, would not suffer from lack of daily service.  That commitment that we got was the most important goal we had all along."

Abbott was asked numerous times if the dropping of the lawsuit was politically motivated. Abbott affirmatively answered 'no'. He went on to say that no portion of the lawsuit was politically motivated.

Meanwhile, American and US Airways senior management will still have to prepare for a pending lawsuit from the Department of Justice concerning the merger.  They state their merger is similar to the one undertaken by United Airlines & Continental Airlines which created the new United.