Things that might be attractive from the United perspective:
- Access to the Caribbean Market Share that US has built
- Access to the European Market Share that US has built
- as mentioned above, BOS, LGA, DCA slots and market share
- the dominant presence in the North East that UA lacks
- maybe some of the 320's or 319's but I don't know about the integration problems that might surface
A merger is doubtful... a fire sale is more likely.
Market share in and of itself is meaningless. "Dominant presence" is another word for "market share." Do you have any idea how easy it is to gain this? In fact, if someone were to buy the LGA and DCA slots, and got access to gates in BOS (again, can anyone tell me how many gates, if any, are vacant at BOS right now?), they'd gain the "dominant presence" you refer to instantly. It's not the airline. It's the gates and slots.
Gates and slots. That's all.
The A319s and 320s have different engines between the two airlines, so they're not especially attractive.
Yeah, it's looking more and more like a fire sale.
What is so impressive about USAIRWAYS servcie to EUROPE? THEY don't control slots at a hugely important airport(LHR) nor do they have an alliance to hub through in Europe. US airplanes for Europe are old ( 767 ) or an uncomom typr( A330-300). Only NW would have any interest in the A330's, the 767's will go get a tan in AZ. Us flies from PHL to all kinds of cities in Europe but so does every one else. PHL does not get much New York or Boston traffic, two cities with huge market sfor the Atlantic( about 30%); AA, UA, CAL & DAL have more to the old world then US does. 777 to start.
