United Still Looking To Acquire Rival

SKY HIGH

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May 22, 2004
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They may be bankrupt, but United still looking to acquire rival: United CEO Glenn Tilton told analysts the industry needs to consolidate and that his carrier will be in the hunt to absorb one of its rivals, USA TODAY reports. "For the industry to get to a position where it can genuinely make some progress through the current level of disfunctionality, there need to be fewer network legacy carriers," The Dallas Morning News (free registration) quotes him as saying. "Just as telecom is plagued with overcapacity and commoditization, so is the airline industry, which must follow and consolidate." While United lost $1.6 billion last year, Tilton says the airline is still in a financial position that allows it seek a merger. Not everyone seems convinced. Jamie Baker of JP Morgan argues that previous deals haven't cut costs or excess capacity. And he calls United's blocked attempt to buy US Airways a "massive distraction." Still, other experts have said that the same United-US Airways deal that was scuttled in 2000 may get approval from regulators this time around. And the carrier's route networks would be a good fit if combined. How about a merger with Southwest? "In United's dreams," The Morning News writes. "Southwest could buy several Uniteds with its current bankroll
 
Oh no, you know a certain airbus pilot will be beating the dead horse again now!
 
Yeah... We should expect a UCT/ICT/TP/new acronymn post any time now...

However, if I were Titlton (or Lakefield), I would be saying the same thing... Because its much better than saying this:

"The airline industry, like telecom, is oversaturated with capacity. Unlike the telecom industry, airlines already have clear winners and losers lined up, since some airlines are profitable, some are bankrupt, and some are in between, sustaining losses but not Bankrupt. Therefore, it is easy for one to predict airline consolidation by virtue of airline failures and liquidation..."

Just about every industry CEO is predicting consolidation... And yet nobody is willing to fall on the sword to make it happen... Our BK laws help them to remain "un-consolidated" at this point. So the industry will continue to limp along until the environment improves (i.e. passengers willing to pay more for tickets + increases in demand (highly unlikely), or something occurs, which is increasingly likely to be catostrophic (or a huge block-buster deal) as time goes by...
 
I see no fix for United without Usairways. They have to have us to match Delta and AA's east coast.
 
That may explain the USAir United VRU situation I commented on before. Perhaps you rez peeps can check into this.
 
Haven't heard anything from anyone in INT and UA taking our calls. Sounds like myth to me when they are so busy getting Atento up and running to take over from us, and UA are busy putting call centres in India, and closing more of their centres.