Continental And United Said To Be Close To Merger Deal

United Airlines and Continental Airlines are getting closer to a merger agreement and would like to wrap up a deal by the end of next week, people with direct knowledge of the discussions said Friday.

The negotiations, which have been under way for months, accelerated after Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines announced a $3 billion deal on April 14 that would create the nation's biggest air carrier.

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Comments

[mmckinl]

The airlines are losing money hand over fist.

We have seen they are postponing or eliminating some maintenance. Recently 4 airlines just threw in the towel, didn't even try to go into bankruptcy to reorganize or merge.

And now we see the mergers that will cut flights, planes and employees.

See the bigger picture: Peak Oil ... This is only the beginning folks. We need to declare an energy emergency NOW!

[sparkey]

The airlines want to do the same thing that the oil companies did. As soon as there are only two or three, the prices will start to go up. No competition.

[oogabooga]

Four crappy airlines = two crappy airlines. Remember the ten major oil companies of lore? Mergers left four. In both cases, these needless mergers flaunt our competition laws, with the Bush cabal's blessing, resulting in less choice and significantly higher prices for the consumer. Just look at gasoline prices to see the future of air travel. Squeezing the regular Americans for every dime is a sport for the NeoCons. And if you object, they accuse you of being a communist, terrorist lover, traitor, class warfare proponent, unpatriotic and the like to cover up their theft.

[SonofKong]

I'm not sure why Continental would want to merge with United. Continental is one of the few "legacy" carriers that's in good financial shape. They would just be buying into United's problems.

- MK -

[VivaZapata]

with all these airline mergers, we may be left with only one company. certain that they'll want to avoid any association with the radio network, would they still consider calling themselves Air America?