"We have decided that the merged airline will retain the legacy Continental operating certificate and the legacy United repair station certificate. This was a technical decision based on a variety of factors.

"In addition, the Continental Micronesia operation will be combined with Continental's in advance of the integration between the Continental and United operations. This will allow us to avoid delaying the larger, more complicated integration of the United and Continental operations and will simplify some of the later integration steps between the two carriers."