I agree that merging in this industry is usually not beneficial in the long run. Especially for Continental, in light of the fact that they are currently considered the best run hub and spoke airline. This is contrary to what this blogger has stated. He claims American holds that crown but he also claims that American has never jumped into the merger frenzy and that is absolutely not true. American has the distinction of taking part in one of the worst mergers in the history of the U.S. airline industry. That being the TWA merger which in short period of time did nothing but take the TWA volume off the market and make St. Louis one of the most expensive cities to fly out of. This merger took place just before the 911 tragedy so in fairness, it never had a chance to succeed considering the depressed state that the industry evolved into subsequent to that tragic day. In my opinion, Continental would be crazy to merge with anyone since history has proven that mergers cause much more problems than they solve. I can hypothesize that being a smaller more nimble carrier can have it's advantages against behemoths when you consider that one of the first things that two carriers do when they merge is consolidate some of their flights out of the same airport which in theory would give an existing carrier at an airport more passengers since the overall flights amongst all carriers would be reduced in aggregate. On the flipside, the behemoth would have the ability to increase flights and run the smaller carriers out of that hub. That is an instance where the government should step in and regulate predatory practices but probably wouldn't. So I guess you are damned if you do or damned if you don't unless you primarily operate in locales where others don't. Ala Southwest, for the most part.

What short memories some people have. American has merged with Air Cal, Reno Air and TWA, and Southwest acquired Muse Air and Morris Air, two of the 140 or so darlings of deregulation that couldn't cut it. If it makes sense, even Southwest will acquire. The fact that American's mergers have all been dismal failures probably attests to their reluctance to go down that road again. Consumers have enjoyed a tremendously competitive pricing environment since deregulation which cut more than half from the cost of air travel since 1978. In the process we have lost the special nature of air travel which it enjoyed prior to deregulation when only the well healed could afford it. Airlines have to keep a lid on capacity in order to have any pricing power. Start ups enter the market with artificially low costs as well as subsidies from local governments and then cannot compete as they mature and have to recognize those costs. This is the primary reason over 140 startups have come and gone since deregulation. The nation and the traveling public is benefited tremendously from a diverse and vibrant air transportation system. Mergers and acquisitions can strengthen a route network, eliminate excess capacity and strengthen revenue if done right.

As an airline crew employee let me say that I have full faith in our management that they will do the right thing for our customers, employees and stock holders. Larry and Jeff have proven time and time again that they have all of the aforementioned parties in mind when making decisions concerning CAL. UAL would be a much better "fit" than AA. It is true CAL is the best in the air in the US and there will be growing pains with integration. Just to give an idea of the dissimmilar pay grades for cabin crews, AA pays more than twice what CAL as the top pay grade. AA's planes are filthy, their crews are bitter and nasty. CAL management has proven to be top notch in running a lean, effecient and BTW a very GREEN airline. I have no fear of a merger of CAL and anyone (as long as our current management remains in tact).

If the pilots dont like the merger, they can, like many in the banking industry, go do something else
What other industry falls prey to this outdated system of seniority
A few months of no mortgage or car payments will settle any job action(or tuition payments for the kids)
Who else works 80 hours a month and complains

Harold Cratch obviously has never worked a day as a pilot otherwise he would know that to get 80 hours of pay a month I spend about 3 times that amount of time away from home. This is not a complaint just reality. Secondly, Continental does not want to merge with anyone. We currently have access to Northwest's Asian routes through our alliance. If we lose access because of a merger between NWA and DAL then we have to respond to remain competitive. The only people who win through these mergers are upper management, shareholders and wall street money managers. The traveling public will ultimately pay higher fares and employees will lose their jobs.

I would like to set the record straight for those of you unaware about American Airlines. American Airlines DID NOT MERGE WITH TWA WE ACQUIRED
TWA. This was BUYOUTof airline that was going out business.

First off lets talk about Continental Airlines. This Airline as manipulated bankruptcy laws several times in order to get rid of labor contracts! THEY STOLE MONEY FROM HARD WORKING EASTERN AIRLINE EMPLOYEES WHO LOST THEIR PENSIONS! THEY SHIFTED ASSESTS FROM EASTERN TO CAL AT BELOW MARKET PRICES!! CAL STOLE, CHEAT AND HURT MANY EMPLOYEES AT EASTERN AIRLINES! AFTER THEY RAIDED EASTERN THEY HIRED MARTY, MARTY WAS BROUGHT IN TO "FRESHEN" UP THE MESS AND BAD PRESS CAL HAD FROM LORENZO. (IS HE STILL ALIVE?)
NOW,CAL TRYS TO HAIL AS A GREAT AIRLINE? TALK TO SOME OF THEIR EMPLOYEES WHO CAME FROM WALMART AND APPRECIATE A STEP UP TO NOTHING!! MARTY AND LORENZO WILL MAKE MILLIONS IF THEY CAN PUSH A MERGER! CAL AND THE OTHER AIRLINES EMPLOYEES WILL SUFFER!!
WHAT A SHAME!

Sorry Fly that does not set the record straight I remember when the ceo's of TWA/AA and UsAir/Unitied testified on C-span with Robert Johnson (Potomac airlines) who was CEO of BET all talked off one big merger which would divest the Usair shuttle between AA and United. AA wanted to stop TWA because of there growth in San Juan and they were not going away fast enough. TWA declared bankrupcy to shed Carl Ichann the day of the anouncment.

Clay if your response is to fly (6) and not to FLY!(7) then you are mistaken. American acquired TWA this was not a merger. This was an acquisition. Many times people have mistakingly the used the word merger when talking about the acquisition. American acquired TWA this was not a merger.