Well Continental and United have announced they want to tie the know, and convince and airline called… United.
It seems like Tiltons tarting with US Airways and the call off of that merger was impetuous enough for Continental to drag United up the isle.
A picture says a 1000 words, so here it is…
Both companies are going to merge in the attempt to bring a bit more consolidation in the US industry, saving a tidy $1bn a year. As you can see they’ll be fusing the two colour schemes together with United’s name, and Continental’s colours.
Well it will save United repainting the remains of it’s fleet that are still in 1997 colours that need to be dragged into 2005 colours. Continetal’s fleet will just of course remain with a retitling.
The merger was described as “a merger of equals”, and that can be seen in this colour scheme, although United is meant to be the stronger partner with a higher share ownership.
For those of you hoping to see Tilton go – no such luck as he’s going to serve as the Non Executive Chairman. However, Jeff Smisek (who you see in the Continental safety videos) will be leading up as CEO.
Of course, the s word has come into play, and those who think their won’t be cuts are living in cloud cooko land, with reductions expected by retirements and voluntary redundancies. Front line are expected to be minimally affected, however there’ll be duplication on the ground which will have to be addressed. Jeff Sismek stated some cost-savings would come from getting the most out of aircraft and sharing IT services, however, I’m finding that hard to believe.
This puts US Airways in a corner, as well as clearing the way for the TATL tie up of American, British Airways and Iberia.
All fun times ahead…
