The Americans will create the largest airline in the world

American Airlines United Airlines and Continental Airlines have agreed to unite through the exchange of shares on 3,7 billion, reports Bloomberg citing an anonymous source. If the deal actually goes through, a single company will be the largest airline in the world.
The fair value of the new airline will be approximately 8.3 billion dollars. The market capitalization of the same carrier will be evaluated in 6,8 billion dollars, based on current stock prices of airlines, said The Financial Times.

Combining carriers will help them save from 1 to 1.2 billion by 2013, says Bloomberg. The company will brand United, and the carrier will become CEO Jeff Smisek (Jeff Smisek) from Continental Airlines. The chairmanship of the Board of Directors will Glenn Tilton (Glenn Tilton) from United Airlines.

Now United and Continental is the third and fourth place in the U.S. as the volume of traffic, and by market capitalization. Together they operate flights to 370 destinations in 59 countries. Their total revenue is 29 billion, and total fleet up to 700 aircraft. In the airline operates, according to Bloomberg, 88,000 people, while according to Reuters – 87 000.

A wave of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. airline industry began in 2008 when Delta Air Lines has teamed up with Northwest Airlines, becoming the largest airline in the country. At the same time the talks held to bring together United with Continental, but the deal fell through at the last moment.

Talks were resumed only in April 2010. Initially they participated, and another company – US Airways, but then she came out of the deal.

It is expected that the merger is officially United and Continental will be announced on May 3.