We may never know, but publicly, at least, Smisek says United-Continental Holdings is smaller than the two airlines were three years ago because “capacity discipline has been very, very good for this business,” and United plans to shrink the airline further.

“You will see that we have actually shrunk our airline and will shrink our airline, so for the past three years, we’re actually smaller than we were before,” Smisek says. “Proof we don’t want to be the world’s largest airline, by the way.”