United’s Acquisition of US Airways Delayed

United Airlines Inc. executives said they will miss another target date for completing their complex $4-billion acquisition of US Airways, signaling that the deal is in serious trouble. This is the fourth time that airline executives have postponed a closing date they mentioned publicly or privately. Executives said they won’t be able to complete the deal by June 30 and declined to say whether they could finish by the Aug. 1 deadline in the merger agreement. United expressed its doubts in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Arlington, Va.-based US Airways’ future is in jeopardy if the deal falls apart. The nation’s sixth-largest airline said it lost $178 million in the first quarter. Chairman Stephen Wolf has said the airline can’t compete for long against nationwide network carriers such as United and American and discount carriers such as Southwest.