American Airlines has bought troubled rival TWA in a complex $500m deal that creates a new giant of the skies, reported the BBC.online.
TWA will sell most of its assets to American Airlines' parent company AMR for $300m, after earlier agreeing to file for bankruptcy protection, said the BBC.
American Airlines will also take over TWA's plane lease contracts and immediately pump $200m into the St Louis-based airline.
The deal should secure the jobs of almost all of TWA's 20,000 employees, said the BBC.
TWA is facing debts estimated at 100 million dollars, some of which are coming due in mid-January, reported AFP, quoting press reports.
The company employs some 20,000 people, and operates a fleet of 184 aircraft from its hub in St. Louis, Missouri. But in the first nine months of its 2000 fiscal year it ran up losses of 115 million dollars from sales of 2.74 billion dollars, said the agency -- (Several Sources)
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