January 28, 2013
10:24 am ET ... S&P KEEPS BUY OPINION ON SHARES OF US AIRWAYS (LCC 14.94****):
According to an unconfirmed report from Reuters, LCC and American Airlines parent AMR Corp. (AAMRQ 1.32 NR) are in the final stages of negotiating a merger, with the final price and management structure to be resolved. We think a merger would resolve LCC's international network weakness and creates a strong competitor to larger U.S. airline peers. We would prefer LCC management to remain in control of such a combination, if it occurs. While a merger would be likely to lead to higher costs at LCC, we think that would be outweighed by network and scale benefits.