What I find interesting with the initial announcement and branding roll out from United/Continental is the blending of both airlines - a true equal combination. The name is United but the livery is Continental. It'll be interesting to watch going forward if they continue to share their heritages in rebranding.

Reminds me of when the Delta/Northwest combination was announced and we heard similar words and phrases like, "it's not a takeover. It's a merger of equals." Yet the majority of every move has been the Northwest side (workers and customers) having everything Delta forced on them. I certainly hear that enough from former NW elite passengers.

What I'm seeing from this UA/CO announcement reminds me that nothing NW was accepted and carried over on the image side.

ACL,
I did. Tried ATL 330, HNL 7er, and NYC 747..... nada. Did not try GUM.

MC

This was on purpose... DL wanted to ensure a very very strong brand and image. There is no accident that the new DL logo looks kind of "northwest-ish." Brand control is key in a situation like this... muddying the waters can be a big detriment to business and brand recognition.

Depending on your seniority, that's what I like to hear!!!:D Less competition.:) Thanks for the heads up.

Denny

Thanks Ferd. Until the merger, I was resigned to commuting the rest of my career. I've tried not to get my hopes up.........but...........to late!:)

My current idea of the kind of challenge I want now is..................where'd I put that beer bottle opener!!!:D

Denny

Model, I have not tired, just asking.

No FtB no challenge. I believe the real base alignment will be this fall/winter.

This was updated by the author of the article.

Posted by Robert Herbst @ 12:50 PM Mon, May 03, 2010
Investor,

I won't answer for Terry but I will clarify you cannot use the data above for any (credible# airline-to-airline comparisons. Here's why:

The capacity/traffic #RPM's & ASM's) above are for mainline operations -except- DAL which is consolidated with their affiliates.

The revenue/expenses includes mainline -and- affiliate inputs but the employee counts only include the parent company.

In other words, a significant amount of revenue/expenses for some carriers comes from "contracted" regional affiliates/partners.

In order to do analogous comparisons, you must reconcile the differences from mainline and regional capacity purchase agreements.

Robert Herbst
AirlineFinancials.com

From Terry: Bob H. is right on. When I do my monthly traffic charts, I always back out the regional numbers, a particular issue with Delta. It was even more complicated when it reported Delta and Northwest separately but in the same release.

Delta's mainline RPMs in 2009 were 163,706 million and mainline ASMs were 197,723 million.

Delta also shows that $5.29 billion of its revenues came from regional carriers, but doesn't say what part of that came from carriers it doesn't own.

In addition, under expenses Delta lists $3.82 billion in "contract carrier arrangements" and $1.60 billion for "contracted services."

So statistical charts like this simply represent a best effort, and often do not include an apples-to-apples comparison.

I hope you use the fancy beer top poppers you buy in Japan.

P.S. If you have those and your friends see them, be prepared to buy them in bulk...

You'll love it 80. I love it. Just keep the cross hairs thingy in the middle of the other thingy. And, oh, land hot. Don't chop. Works much mo betta. I keep the AT on until 100 feet and then punch it off.

Also, be thin. No fat. The CP is too small. If you have a hefty partner, his or her stuff will be in your stuff. And don't hold hands across the center console. It happens...and its not pretty.:eek:

Its like bunking on summer camp...only you won't be at summer camp.

Now I'm in Medina and the weather is a lot colder than Mecca.