US Airways plans shut down over a 90-day stretch

After more than 75 years of flying, the end is near for US Airways.

American Airlines plans to shut down the venerable carrier over a 90-day stretch that could begin as soon as July, which would mean a final departure around October.

American executives designed the gradual fade-out to avoid the kind of technological glitches and massive flight delays that plagued United Airlines after it abruptly switched to Continental's computer systems in 2012.

US Airways flights will slowly disappear and be replaced by American flights in a single reservations system. It's one of the trickiest parts of merging two airlines.

"It's absolutely critical because it's really the core system for almost every customer-facing transaction that happens at the airline," said Maya Leibman, the chief information officer for parent American Airlines Group Inc., now the world's biggest airline operator.

Even if all goes smoothly, vestiges of US Airways will remain. Most noticeably, American won't finish repainting all the US Airways jets until mid-2016 and even later for a few US Airways Express planes. Company executives expect that they will still be combining labor groups and flight-operating systems through 2017, four years after the merger.

The disappearance of US Airways isn't likely to affect fares. American already sets those for both carriers. Since 2005, mergers have eliminated five big airlines and left four companies controlling more than 80 percent of the US air-travel market. Fares have been rising modestly, and fees have gone up sharply.