1257

(AP) - United and Continental airlines will get clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday to operate as a single airline, the union for Continental pilots said.
The so-called single operating certificate means that, as far as the FAA is concerned, United and Continental are one airline.
For passengers, it's a different story. The company will continue to sell tickets on United and Continental flights, and passengers will still check in and fly with two separate airlines.
The parts of the airline that passengers see, such as check-in and frequent-flier programs, are expected to be merged early next year.
A spokeswoman for the airline said that it had not received the single operating certificate as of Tuesday evening.
But the company has told pilots that the two airlines will begin operating under the single certificate at 6 a.m. CST Wednesday.
That means Continental pilots will start using the "United" call sign when they talk to air traffic controllers.

United is on its way toward merging both airlines under the United name.
It will be able to merge flight operations once it gets a single union contract covering pilots from both airlines.
Shares of Chicago-based United Continental Holdings Inc. rose $1.05, or 6.3 percent, to close at $17.63.

throttleweenie

What pilots did they tell. Not me. Nothing on Skynet or Uni.

TW

Coach67

Anyone know what happens with the C-UAL scope prohibitions on RJ's and how they might be enforced or tracked now with an SOC?

EWRflyr

It was a L-CAL Pilot Bulletin advising us a few days ago that as of today at 0600 the "Continental" call sign would disappear, the L-UAL operating certificate would cease to exist and the combined airline would be operating under the L-CAL operating certificate going forward with all flights dispatched as "United" flights.

They ask us to use "United Airlines" in all our PA's to limit confusion to passengers, yet the websites and hub/airport signage doesn't exactly help matters for the passengers. Even the savvy traveler on FlyerTalk is trying to figure out what to make of the SOC. If they can't figure it out, the toddler holding, stroller-pushing, diper-bag toting family sure won't come Christmas time.

NFLUALNFL

Great point. Based on their past behavior, it seems more like when than if....

Slammer

Of course they will go after SCOPE, just as was done when the merger became legal and the first shot was to go after 70 seaters between CAL hubs. Although SOC allows us to use a United call-sign, we operate as two seperate airlines under serperate labor contracts...bottomline, SCOPE will be attacked...

Old UCAL CA

EMPLOYEE BULLETIN: UNITED RECEIVES FAA APPROVAL FOR
SINGLE OPERATING CERTIFICATE

We received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today for a single operating certificate (SOC), marking another significant achievement in our merger integration. The certificate gives the FAA a single point of oversight for our combined operations and, effective today, air traffic control communications will refer to all United and Continental flights as “United.”

“I would like to thank our co-workers, the FAA and the many regulatory authorities around the globe who put tremendous time and effort into our achieving a single operating certificate,” said Jeff. “While we have much work ahead of us as we integrate these two great carriers, this is a significant milestone.”

More than 500 co-workers participated throughout the rigorous 18-month process to align operating policies and procedures from both United Airlines and Continental Airlines in order to obtain a single certificate from the FAA. Co-workers collaborated closely to evaluate pre-integration programs, processes and operating specifications of both airlines and determine the best choice for the new United. The teams streamlined more than 440 operational manuals, programs and procedures down to approximately 260 manuals for the new United – a process that involved roughly 2,000 changes.

Co-workers have completed FAA-approved training for the harmonized policies and procedures. The majority of SOC-related changes, ranging from common delay codes and flight numbers to a single source for flight information, are already in place for most work groups. Other changes, such as a single flight code and common onboard announcements, are effective today.

Operational changes as a result of SOC will not change how customers interact with us. Our customers will continue to shop both United and Continental for flights, obtain seat assignments and check flight status on each carrier’s respective website until the company migrates to a single passenger service system (PSS) in the first quarter of 2012.

In addition, obtaining an SOC does not affect the process to establish joint collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for each of our represented employee groups. Those discussions continue.

In January 2012, we will begin reporting our operating statistics as a single carrier to the Department of Transportation.

Old UCAL CA

The 737 community received a bulletin on November 25, 2011.

Although it contains supporting paragraphs, the following paragraph is the salient point...

SlickMachine

Next question: has the $4 million bonus hit Co worker Smisek's bank account yet? Rhetorical, of course, but a good one for a CEO exchange.

13n144e

The surviving certiificate is CAL. The scope protections from the CAL pilots' contract are still in effect until we're given a JCBA. That the company will probably choose not to honor their agreement is probably a forgone conclusion, but considering that it's the same certificate and same contract, violations shouldn't be any more difficult to track down and enforce.