Well today US Airways and United Airlines announced that they were in merger talks. Now there are so many things wrong with this, that I just don't know where to start. Crappy airline, crappy service, crappy costs, crappy unions, even a crappy half merger between America West and US Airways. Everything about this merger just screams CRAP!!!
But getting past that, I want to take a look at what a potential merged airline would like…
If the airlines were just purely combined, here are some basic stats of what they would look like.
Hubs:
Looking at the map above, it seems like the combined airline would have pretty decent geographic coverage. Of the hubs above, I'd assume that O'hare, Denver, San Fran, and Charlotte are untouchable, because they are too profitable or serve too great a purpose. Dulles and Reagan is an interesting conundrum. If the airlines truly want to merge, then I'd guess that they'd have to divest at one airport; Congress and the DOT would flare up at the kind of pricing power those two hubs would give to the airline. Considering the facts, I'd say that United chooses Dulles because they can run trans-cons, and international stuff as well. Between LAX and Phoenix, I don't really know. LAX functions as nothing more than a large O&D base for United at this point, but Phoenix does nothing Denver can't do, except for Latin America. So I see both staying, but Phoenix becoming more like LAX, but a transfer point for Latin American routes. As for Philadelphia, I would say that there's too much O&D there for it to fall as much, but I can see a major draw down in regional European destinations..
So a pared down UA/US might not lose much:
maps credit of Great Circle Mapper
Fleet:
Airbus A319- 148+7 orders
Airbus A320- 167+48 orders
Airbus A321- 48+17 orders
Airbus A330-200- 7+18 orders
Airbus A330-300- 9+1 order
Airbus A350-900- 29 orders
Airbus A350-800- 18 orders
Boeing 737-300- 24
Boeing 737-400- 40
Boeing 747-400- 24
Boeing 757-200- 122
Boeing 767-200ER- 10
Boeing 767-300ER- 35
Boeing 777-200- 19
Boeing 777-200ER- 33
Boeing 787-8- 25 orders
Embraer ERJ-190- 19+23 orders
Not a lot is going to change here, other than the 737s leaving for new A320s and E190s
Passengers:
They're still going to get crappy service, but now it'll be almost 132 million of them, vs. 81 million on United, and 51 million on US Airways.
Employees
Messed up unions will persist, and they'll have 81,765 employees worldwide to choose from.
Brand/Service
Both airlines have pretty bad service, but United is better, and is the more recognizable brand, especially internationally. Here's hoping that United's brand and service persist.
Result
ONE SH**TTY AIRLINE: