United and Continental Merging to Form World's Largest Airline (reservation, airlines, airports)
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News sources expect United and Continental Airlines to announce tomorrow (May 3rd) that they are merging together to form the world's largest airline. United is currently the nation's 3rd largest and Continental the 4th largest carrier in the USA and together will be larger than Delta and American.
The merged carrier will have the United Airlines name and have its headquarters and operations center in Chicago. Current Continental CEO Jeff Smisek will be the CEO of the merged United and current UA CEO Glenn Tilton will non-executive chairman for two years. The new airline will have 16 board seats made up of leaders from both airlines and two union representatives.
The combined United Airlines will be the largest airline in the world with 370 destinations (of which 107 will be international) and 698 aircraft flying to all 6 continents.
-Hubs will be in New York City (Newark), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, Washington DC, Cleveland, and Chicago.
-Houston will be the largest hub in passenger volume and # of flights
-The deal is an all stock transaction with CO stockholders receiving United stock
-This will leave two enormous airlines: United and Delta in the United States, a medium size American, and a small US Airways eliminating the competition that ensued when Northwest (merged with Delta) and Continental (merged with United) were stand alone airlines and the USA had 6 international carriers.
-Alliances: The combined United and then much smaller US Airways will be in Star Alliance. American will be in One World and Delta in SkyTeam.
Southwest doesn't fly to enough places. Delta all the way!
Sure it does (unfortunately not Huntsville where I live....)
Baggage fees.
Cheaper beer prices.
Cheaper Wifi
Much friendlier flight attendants
Predictable
Sure it does (unfortunately not Huntsville where I live....)
Baggage fees.
Cheaper beer prices.
Cheaper Wifi
Much friendlier flight attendants
Predictable
There certainly is a great place in this country for Southwest and its popularity has resulted in its tremendous growth and enormous size. Virtually every airline fears the "Southwest effect" when SWA moves into an airport for the first time. You usually see fares lower to compete with the efficient machine that is Southwest Airlines. Its a model many have tried to copy, but none have been able to perfect to the degree SWA has.
However, Southwest is limited currently and doesn't serve everyone. Southwest focuses on short and medium range flights to lower yield destinations. It offers very few trans-continental flights such as New York-Los Angeles, Miami-San Francisco, Atlanta-Seattle, etc... For frequent business travelers, the major legacy carriers offer better rewards for being a loyal flier. Lounges, upgrade opportunities, frequent flier miles, airline alliances with foreign carriers, etc.... make a legacy more appealing to many business people. Really, the two types of airlines just serve different markets. Southwest is certainly the best in my opinion for casual leisure travel.
Southwest can get you to 68 airports.
The new United can get you to 370 airports on UA metal and then 1,077 destinations through its strong ties in the Star Alliance. Basically UA can route you pretty much anywhere in the world on one reservation; Southwest can't. My United Frequent Flier miles got me on a trip from LAX-Sydney-Auckland-Christchurch-LAX on a combination of United operated flights and their alliance partner Air New Zealand. As great as SW is, it can't do that.
Not saying one is better than the other. They just serve very different markets. Southwest flies Denver-Los Angeles to actually get people to L.A. Probably half the people on a United Denver-Los Angeles flight are connecting to fly to Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Honolulu, etc... Just very different models of flying.
Let's see. You have a customer friendly airline like Continental merging with a customer UNfriendly United.
You have five or six unions involved and you know that either the United or the Continental employees will be screwed in terms of seniority. Either way, a good portion of the employees will end up unhappy with the final arrangements.
You have two fleets of completely different equipment.
It just doesn't sound like a marriage made in heaven. And no one but the flying public will suffer.
Let's see. You have a customer friendly airline like Continental merging with a customer UNfriendly United.
You have five or six unions involved and you know that either the United or the Continental employees will be screwed in terms of seniority. Either way, a good portion of the employees will end up unhappy with the final arrangements.
You have two fleets of completely different equipment.
It just doesn't sound like a marriage made in heaven. And no one but the flying public will suffer.
I agree. Other than size, I don't see the benefits for a well run airline like Continental. United just has too much baggage.
Meet the new corporation "United Continental Holdings Inc." that will operate under the brand "United Airlines." The branding will look exactly like Continental planes do now, except "United" will be painted on them. So the United name is basically replacing Continental brand products.
This is the merger website with questions about the new merged company: Let's Fly Together
Thank goodness, industry consolidation = higher fares which = potential profits for an industry who needs them badly.
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