Originally Posted by Alex_I

STL was TWA main hub. According to Wikipedia: "By September 1999, Lambert was TWA's main hub, with 103 destinations served by 515 daily flights: 352 on TWA mainline aircraft and 163 on Trans World Express flights operated by its commuter airline partners. Lambert became the eighth-busiest U.S. airport by flights." We all know what happened next: 9/11 and the TWA collapse. Today, AAL is trading at $11.18 and the nearly linear decline in the stock prices over the last few years is clear. The company has a large debt and the interest rates are high. Thus, it is not completely out of question if after some unexpected and large scale events the whole operation would collapse. In such unlikely but not impossible scenario, the AA assets may be purchased by still solvent UA. Then DFW will be taken over by lowcosters like Southwest while UA will concentrate on IAH.
Look, it is hard to predict the future of large corporations, McDonald Douglas is gone. IBM is still in business but its focus changed over the years. The way the things are going, AA may shift into a credit card signup business.