PB
Fly works for UAL. So why come piss on our flowers? I for one am keenly aware of the struggles of this industry. I am not choosing to harp on the same old tired song. Maybe the sooaring stock and positive analyst reports have all been a bump of good news for US Airways,but so far I see nothing positive out of the rest of the Chapter 11 camps, so please let us at US have just one freakin moment to feel good. Is that sooo much to ask???
You people beat all!! :down:
Don't let the turkeys get ya down, 1st. If Fly does work for UAL, as they're about to enter their 4th year in bankruptcy, soon, she is not going to have anything nice to say -- she's jealous!
Plus, we don't need anyone to make us feel good -- we have 2.5 billion of our own reasons.
I do see more wide-bodies coming in to the fleet -- not for growth however, but to replace the 767s. But it's not going to be anytime soon (end of 2007, at the earliest, I would expect). And the E-190s -- that part I really don't know about -- I'd like to see them in the fleet, but I'm not sure where we'd deploy them right now...
Do we need the UAL code-share? I would have to say "no". I remember when CO couldn't wait to get out of the HP code-share when HP slashed prices and ticketing rules -- the code-share ended and we've never looked back. Nothing will happen with the code-share prior to April 2006...but after that, let's see if we still really need each other.
Do we need the Star Alliance? Yes. Yes, we do. The up-and-coming population with disposable income is going to want more than Las Vegas and Mexico as exotic places to travel. These are the gen-Xers and younger that are coming of age and are already "wordly" because of the internet, etc. A few destinations in Europe ain't going to do it for them either... Or they're today's business execs traveling to China monthly who only want to take the kids to Orlando for a week when they finally have some time off and spend those frequent-flyer miles.
That said, if we break the code-share, will UAL want US out of StarAlliance? Probably. But as others have said, there's more to this equation than we know right now... We've got to give this merger a few months and see what happens with UAL and their supposed emergence from BK next year (I'll believe it when I see it) and what happens with other "corporate transactions" within the airline industry.
It's all very interesting. And fun to speculate about. Let's continue to enjoy our good news and play "and if I were king of the airline, here's what I would do..." Heck, we can't do any worse than some have already done!