American Airlines, the biggest passenger airline in the United States, has reached an agreement to merge with smaller competitor US Airways, creating the world's largest airline.
The boards of the two airlines agreed to the merger late Wednesday night. A formal announcement will be made Thursday.
The combined company, which will retain the American Airlines name, will have about 94,000 employees and a fleet of more than 900 planes servicing thousands of flights every day.
The American Airlines-US Airways merger is the latest of its kind in the U.S. aviation industry in the past decade, leaving just four major major U.S. airlines -- American, Delta, United and Southwest.