US Airways Reportedly Interested Again in Buying American

US Airways, according to reports over the weekend, is once again expressing interest in buying American Airlines, which is currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Several published reports said US Airways is in talks with some of American’s creditors and advisors over a plan where it would acquire American.

US Airways CEO Doug Parker last week said advisers had been hired to consider a bid. Meanwhile, American parent AMR Corporation said it will ask a federal bankruptcy judge to throw out its existing labor contracts, seeking to cut costs further.

If the US Airways bid for American were to succeed, it would cut the number of major legacy careers down to three, including United (which merged with Continental) and Delta (which merged with Northwest).

Of course, other carriers, such as Southwest and JetBlue, are growing in the market as well.  US Airways’ goal, according to press reports, is to complete a deal before American’s parent company AMR exits bankruptcy proceedings. AMR recently received permission to extend the filing deadline for its reorganization plan until Sept. 28.

US Airways also is reportedly buying up Internet domain names reflecting a potential merger. The airline confirmed that US Airways registered domain addresses that include the names of both US Airways and American, including usairways-american.com and american-usairways.com.