United Airlines

[stevem]

Strong rumours around that United is being sized up for sale or a merger, with potential partners being Continental or Delta. Anything floating around in local media State side. United shares have risen on the back of these rumours.

[MrDK]

There is some speculation about that. See Update -- UAL Looking To Merge - Forbes.com

This is not the first time United and Delta are dancing with each other.
Merger would be tough, where as acquisition would be more likely. Both Delta and Continental are Skyteam members (Delta founding) where United is Star Alliance. Delta and Northwest Airlines (both in Chapter 11) are equal minority share holders in Continental.

[stevem]

Originally Posted by MrDK

This is not the first time United and Delta are dancing with each other.
Merger would be tough, where as acquisition would be more likely. Both Delta and Continental are Skyteam members (Delta founding) where United is Star Alliance. Delta and Northwest Airlines (both in Chapter 11) are equal minority share holders in Continental.

Interesting mix there!!!

[MrDK]

Further to a little reading tonight (61 matches on Google News), Northwest Airlines apparently has the right to veto certain Continental business partnerings. This is the main reason that Continental joined Skyteam last year together with NWA when NWA's primary partner KLM was purchased by Air France (another Skyteam founder). NWA and United controls the US transpacific routes with Continental being a tied #3 with American Airlines. This would make it unlikely that NWA would accept that kind of competition without some reassignment of routes.

Personally I have flown 3,000,000 actual miles on Delta and would welcome more options to Asia without using partner airlines. BTW Malaysia Airlines is slated to join Skyteam in 2007.

[Einheriar]

well although most Star Alliance members have upgraded or are upgrading their Airfleet, and have made billions of investments, they are not all doing good. SAS are in for a pretty rough ride again, the cabin crews have annouced they may go on strike come October. which will mean loosing alot of money.

I have observed that star Alliance are cooperating alot with Sky team, especially since Air france purchased KLM, KLM was a member of Star Alliance, maybe this is only to honour the comitments KLM had allready made or...well who knows.

Big merger seems to be in, right now in this industry, while i think its kind of sad, that most carriers try to look the same, i always like the feeling i got, when i boarded THAI Airways, Singapore Airways, or other Carriers with a distinctive ethnic look. But if it means cheaper Airflights I think I can live with it

[Captain]

Originally Posted by Einheriar

well although most Star Alliance members have upgraded or are upgrading their Airfleet, and have made billions of investments, they are not all doing good. SAS are in for a pretty rough ride again, the cabin crews have annouced they may go on strike come October. which will mean loosing alot of money.

I have observed that star Alliance are cooperating alot with Sky team, especially since Air france purchased KLM, KLM was a member of Star Alliance, maybe this is only to honour the comitments KLM had allready made or...well who knows.

Big merger seems to be in, right now in this industry, while i think its kind of sad, that most carriers try to look the same, i always like the feeling i got, when i boarded THAI Airways, Singapore Airways, or other Carriers with a distinctive ethnic look. But if it means cheaper Airflights I think I can live with it

KLM has never been a member of Star Alliance.

[MrDK]

Originally Posted by Einheriar

well although most Star Alliance members have upgraded or are upgrading their Airfleet, and have made billions of investments, they are not all doing good. SAS are in for a pretty rough ride again, the cabin crews have annouced they may go on strike come October. which will mean loosing alot of money.

I have observed that star Alliance are cooperating alot with Sky team, especially since Air france purchased KLM, KLM was a member of Star Alliance, maybe this is only to honour the comitments KLM had allready made or...well who knows.

Big merger seems to be in, right now in this industry, while i think its kind of sad, that most carriers try to look the same, i always like the feeling i got, when i boarded THAI Airways, Singapore Airways, or other Carriers with a distinctive ethnic look. But if it means cheaper Airflights I think I can live with it

KLM was in an alliance with Northwest (an alliance of 2). When Air France merged with KLM, NWA followed suit into Skyteam. With Delta and NWA both being share holders of Continental, they were a shoe in.

[Einheriar]

Originally Posted by Captain

KLM has never been a member of Star Alliance.

Sorry could be my mistake, maybe they just had some sort of partnership with SAS?

[MrDK]

Originally Posted by Einheriar

Sorry could be my mistake, maybe they just had some sort of partnership with SAS?

I am a little out of my league here, but I think SAS had a "two company" alliance with Continental Airlines before they joined Star Alliance.

[spartan]

Originally Posted by stevem

Strong rumours around that United is being sized up for sale or a merger, with potential partners being Continental or Delta. Anything floating around in local media State side. United shares have risen on the back of these rumours.

Delta is going to emerge from chapter 11 in very good shape sometime this spring. But I'd be very surprised if they went after United. A more likely merger would be with North West, NWA has the asia links and Delta has South America and Caribbean routes. A Delta/Northwest/Continental company would be very solid competiton for UAL, that combination was rumoured for merger before 9/11.

[MrDK]

Originally Posted by spartan

Delta is going to emerge from chapter 11 in very good shape sometime this spring. But I'd be very surprised if they went after United. A more likely merger would be with North West, NWA has the asia links and Delta has South America and Caribbean routes. A Delta/Northwest/Continental company would be very solid competiton for UAL, that combination was rumoured for merger before 9/11.

I would welcome a merger between the three, or even just NWA and DL. BTW Delta purchased the domain deltaorient.com last year. NWA used to be Northwest Orient. Normally it takes you to Delta.com, however, you can sometimes see the original page when the servers do not connect. See attached picture.