American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) parent AMR Corporation and US Airways (Phoenix Sky Harbor) parent, US Airways Group, Inc. have announced the completion of their merger to officially form American Airlines Group Inc. The merger now paves the way for the building of new American Airlines, an AMR statement read. The new merged carrier will take an estimated 18-24 months to obtain a single operating certificate from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In the interim, US Airways will exit Star Alliance on March 30, 2014 and will immediately enter Oneworld on March 31, 2014. The new American now offers a robust global network with nearly 6'700 daily flights to more than 330 destinations in more than 50 countries and more than 100'000 employees worldwide. “We are taking the best of both US Airways and American Airlines to create a formidable competitor, better positioned to deliver for all of our stakeholders. We look forward to integrating our companies quickly and efficiently so the significant benefits of the merger can be realized,” said Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines. US Airways will stop selling United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) codeshare flights effective immediately. It will continue to cooperate with Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International), Swiss (LX, Zurich) and Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) until March 30 but plans to retain codeshare partnerships with some other Star Alliance carriers until it completely merges into American Airlines.