(Photo by Peter O'Dowd - KJZZ)

American Airlines plane.

After two years of legal battles, American Airlines is free to merge with Tempe-based US Airways. The deal should be complete Dec. 9, the day American’s bankruptcy restructuring plan will be finalized. A federal bankruptcy judge cleared the way for the merger when he ruled this month’s settlement of a federal antitrust lawsuit did not upset American’s bankruptcy plan.

According to US Airways spokesman John McDonald, his company has 9,000 employees in the state of Arizona.

“And the vast majority of those are people who serve customers at the airport,” McDonald said, “so for the vast majority of our employees, it’s going to be business as usual, except that we’ll be supporting even more customers.”

McDonald added that creating the largest airline in the world will increase route options for customers. Despite concerns the merger would hurt competition, the US Justice Department signed off on the merger after the airlines agreed to give up dozens of take-off and landing slots at several key airports.