Originally Posted by
gettinbumped
Factors such as aircraft orders etc become irrelevant after a merger date because management makes decisions based on the COMBINED carrier. For example, the 757's we are parking right now are due to having UCH 737's coming on board to replace them. In a standalone operation, LUAL wouldn't have had those airplanes, so they wouldn't have parked the 757 fleet until they ordered their own narrowbodies. Capacity at both airlines most likely would have been essentially flat, based on the the rest of the industry.
I don't disagree in total with this statement. However, united has a long history and trend of retiring aircraft without replacing them. I think it is overly optimistic to think that this trend would have reversed absent a merger.
Someone earlier posted that cal pilot have enjoyed "super seniority" for the past three years. I prefer to think of it as cal pilots enjoying the long term business/fleet plan of our airline. The only growth of positions that cal has seen that we would not have seen as an independent carrier are the additional pilots needed to staff two bases. The la base was already in the works. Ual pilots have also enjoyed the additional staffing of two bases. A bit of a wash, really.