I’m disappointed this did not happen. As much as I dislike the shape and attitude at US Airways, my current main carrier, United, needs a partner.
It can’t be American because of antitrust. Delta and Northwest have already hooked up. Continental has passed on a full merger, although I guess some code-share thingy is being discussed. The folks at United are running out of options.
So what is next? Do they cut size, employees, capacity and airplanes? Remember that they came out of bankruptcy with a plan based on $60 a barrel oil and now we are at twice that amount.
How amount a merger with a small carrier or low cost carrier? Airtran?, Frontier? Midwest? I’m not sure that will solve the problems of scale. Southwest doesn’t need the headache. They are still making money.
I’ve thought for a long time we would end up with 3 major carriers with the leads being Delta, American and United. US Airways just won’t make it in my personal opinion, and Continental is better off in a deal with American or United.
Maybe they are just playing one against the other? Time will tell, but this is painful to watch.
