Updates on All Things United Airlines

060120 United Vmed 11A.Widec
From one of our readers this morning:

"Here is what I am hearing on the United front:


1. Culling the B737 fleet (94 airplanes) by Fall 2009.

2. Selling off 7 B747s by Fall 2008.

3. 25 percent staff cuts by Fall 2008.

4. Death to TED (quickly but painfully).

5. John Tague becomes the de facto President. (Hopefully after some quick-but-intense "Grooming by Glenn").

6. Massive reorganization - "all the
wrong people are being promoted."

Are you hearing similar rumblings?"

Yes. And more.

In fact, the Tague comment is especially interesting, as after the US Airways/United deal fell apart, we were told by several folks close to the deal that one of the big reasons was because John Tague wanted to become CEO of United, USTed, or whatever the merged airline would have been called.

So this dovetails with those comments.

We've also had a slew of other comments from readers this morning telling us that the entire United Boeing 737 fleet will be parked. So this seems to coincide with our reader's comments above as well.

So it looks like instead of parking 70 aircraft, the total number of aircraft parked at United Airlines may be over 100.

Scary stuff, but still nothing from the company...

 

Rumors are rumors until confirmed by a company press release.

Anything that can affect financial performance of a publicly traded company is broadcast to all shareholders simultaneously to avoid accusations of insider trading. The most common mechanism to communicate with shareholders is a press release.

 

Sorry to hear the bad news. Good luck to all!

 

I would guess sometime after five today if at all.

 

I agree, always after the market is closed, and "big" news that could have a downside to the stock are often announced on a Friday to let the market absorb the news for a few days before trading. I guess we'll have to wait and see if the news is good for the company in terms of financials (which of course is inversely proportional to that of labor).

 

Quite true. The only time that DAL announced something early in the day was in late 04. It was the announcement of the DFW base closure. Everything else has been after five.

 

Now the same planebuzz story is being reported in the Chicago Tribune. Announcement to be made Wednesday.

 

A bunch of us regional guys are discussing this over on our side. All I got to say is if this is mostly domestic, 737 flying, you guys should put up a big fight if they try and give those routes to their regional feeds. I think its time you guys started flying those pesky little buggers instead of us. Don't let them take this flying away from you, just to give it to others, because I could see that scenario playing out here.

 

This just showed up on www.chicagotribune.com: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,4018539.story

 

Usually the Tribune has pretty good insiders from United's HDQ's. Sorry to all the UA employee's. It really is going to be the trend this year of airlines cutting to escape fuel expense.