And why would they do that....quit being so negative dude.

 

Other than some company buying them how can united make it? They have shrunk so much there route structure has to suffer.

 

DAL was down and out a few years ago as well. Our management team under Leo Mullins did a textbook job of ruining a great brand. During BK, our management team restructured and we got some incredible people - Glen Hauenstein and Bob Cortelyou. They completely redid our network and in my opinion were the two most responsible for DAL's turnaround.

My point is that UAL could turnaround if given competent management and sword that the employees could rally behind. Under Tilton's tenure its unlikely. But a new team could definitely take advantage of what I believe is the best Hub network of any legacy and make it shine again.

Time will tell, but DAL is a vastly different beast now than we were four years ago.

 

The "announcement" yesterday, I am sure is just another piece of the puzzle coming together....interesting that this fall is when the order is to take place...the same time CAL officially enters the STAR alliance...and CAL has the orders for the narrowbodies. If in the end a merger takes place....everything will be in order when it is announced.

This is not by chance this time frame is the way it is.

 

Delta has the best route structure not United. They used to have 10,000 pilots and will be down to 5500. They are Smaller than SWA.

 

And I suppose you can't see how if they were to merge that they cannot come in looking too big.....think about it. Add UAL and CAL...what do you come up with?...11,300.

Similar to the numbers at DAL AFTER the merger.

 

Lets make one thing clear....

UAL did not order a single airframe.

 

With the US currency devaluation Boeing will get the upper hand. And if they are not pitting Boeing against Airbus then they are not being "good" businessmen.

 

2007 to answer your question.....

 

No they did not place an order. However, to believe that this is the "first" time the company and the manufacturers are entering into talks would be extremely naive. Much like the auto industry, the airframe manufacturers are in search of orders. This buying in the trough and taking delivery in the peak is a good strategy and hopefully we will see the airplanes on the ramp at some point.

At this point in time I don't think there are any other major US carriers with bids on 150 airplane orders? Certainly not CAL. This will hopefully be a all encompassing change for UAL and perhaps set some new standards for mainline flying in the future with a narrowbody refreshment coming afterwards.

Perhaps this is my misconstrued concept, but at UAL we have had some large sine curves in the past few years of bad and good news. In fact the dips probably out pace the peaks. Why is it impossible to enjoy the moment and perhaps think positively about our future for 5 minutes without be cast upon by those that think all good news is wrapped in bad.

I would think anyone that is at CAL could appreciate a turnaround. Look at the history of CAL and there are some signifcant close calls with extinction. The right leadership was able to correct what was one of the worse carriers in existence. Good for you guys climbing out of the grave. Why not allow someone else to do the same?

L