United, Continental Agree To Merge

United Airlines and Continental Airlines have agreed to merge to create the world's largest carrier by passenger traffic. According to Bloomberg News, the deal will be "stock swap valued at more than $3 billion" and "United and Continental together would take the top spot in global traffic from Delta Air Lines Inc., with hubs in New York and Washington and the most traffic among U.S. carriers on high- fare Atlantic and Pacific routes." The merged company will keep United's name and base in Chicago; the NY Times says the deal, should it be approved, "would give the airlines the muscle to fend off low-cost rivals at home and to take on foreign carriers abroad."

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By Jen Chung in News on May 3, 2010 8:20 AM

Comments [rss]

pinball29

Continental has always been the best of the big airlines. United, which was once a great airline, is now basically a subway system with wings. This deal will ruin both of them. The customer will be thier absolute last priority. Corporate execs enriching themselves will be thier first order of business. A shame. Lets hope Jetblue continues to expand.

NannyState

My first plane ride was First Class on Continental in 1973. These guys have no idea...

Kojak

Jetblue's simplicity helped lead to its success. Branching out into international routes is risky, especially without a vast enough system to help feed those routes.

And their jets don't have the range to go anywhere farther than the Caribbean. They'll need at least A330's/767's/787's to even think about Europe.

matty

United will now retrofit all of Continental's fleet with used Greyhound bus seats and pee-stained carpeting for our flying enjoyment.

schadenfreudian mensch

Don't forget paying for your drinks, blankets, pillows, carry-on bags,etc.

Kojak

Either way, prices will go up. And this won't be the last act of consolidation in the Industry.

henryhamilton

Big enough not to give a damn, and too big to fail. They will be impossible to live with.

nicemarmot

Oh hooray, now I'll have no way of knowing whether I'm going to be on a relatively decent Continental plane or a shittastic ball of metal from United.