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Continental & United Merger

citykid09

By citykid09
in Planes

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Subdude

Subdude

Posted
Posted

I'm pretty sure the only thing that has changed from the initial livery announcement is the font used for the word "United".

That is correct. At first "United" was in the font originally used by Continental. The new font is close to the old United typeface.

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zandago

zandago

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Met a woman who worked at Continental at dinner several weeks ago. Sounds like workers involved with day to day activities at IAH would be staying but most others are being asked/told to move to Chicago. She said many of her coworkers are really nervous about the upcoming year. Her feeling was that even if people did move to Chicago with the company, being laid off in the next year or two was still a strong possibility.

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rgr

rgr

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A friend who works at Continental makes it sound like it is only just beginning to dawn on employees that despite being advertised as a "merger of equals" it is effectively a United takeover. We shall see.

with the announcement of the senior executives, most frequent flyers on "flyertalk" say that the new company looks like continental with united's name, and i agree. the four continental executives are solidly continental, with start dates from the mid-90s. they have been with the company since bethune. three of the four united executives were brought in since bankruptcy and probably have no real identity with or loyalty to the old united. the coo of the new company has been with united since about 1969 when he started as a ramp worker, and worked his way up to the top. finally, the three most important positions of power, the ceo, the president, and the chief marketing officer are continental (jeff will be, both, president and ceo for an unspecified period of time).

future announcements will help fill in what the new company will look like. i'm guessing we'll be getting a number of them over the next month.

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KinkaidAlum

KinkaidAlum

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The 4 top execs might be "solidly" Continental, but these are the same 4 that decided to "merge" just 2 years after the more trusted former leadership team decided that United WAS NOT A VIABLE partner.

The fact of the matter is, the Houston area is getting ready to lose lots of decent paying jobs. Middle management will likely be terminated or forced to Chicago. Route planners, accountants, regional VIPs, etc... are all going to be either out of work or out of town. This is a HUGE blow to Houston but particularly to downtown.

The hub might grow, but most jobs at the airport are not as high paying as those downtown. So, even if there isn't a net loss of jobs (which is highly unlikely since nearly 100% of mergers involve downsizing) it would still be a net loss for Houston because rampers, gate agents, etc... don't make nearly as much as the accountants, managers, and sales folks.

Get ready to see about 5,000 Houstonians hit the job market shortly...

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Hartmann

Hartmann

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The 4 top execs might be "solidly" Continental, but these are the same 4 that decided to "merge" just 2 years after the more trusted former leadership team decided that United WAS NOT A VIABLE partner.

The fact of the matter is, the Houston area is getting ready to lose lots of decent paying jobs. Middle management will likely be terminated or forced to Chicago. Route planners, accountants, regional VIPs, etc... are all going to be either out of work or out of town. This is a HUGE blow to Houston but particularly to downtown.

The hub might grow, but most jobs at the airport are not as high paying as those downtown. So, even if there isn't a net loss of jobs (which is highly unlikely since nearly 100% of mergers involve downsizing) it would still be a net loss for Houston because rampers, gate agents, etc... don't make nearly as much as the accountants, managers, and sales folks.

Get ready to see about 5,000 Houstonians hit the job market shortly...

I do not think they will just let everyone go as that will not bode well for them in the press. People will lose their jobs as things like IT, operations, etc. are decided upon and staff moved around accordingly, but to assume that this is going to make Smith Street a ghost town is a bit extreme.

I think Smisek has the right idea with the merger though, he does not want a US/America West debacle.

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VicMan

VicMan

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Also part of the reason why Chicago may have been chosen was to placate the United side of the equation.

After the merger is completed, Houston could always offer incentives for Continental to come back. Maybe allow Continental a low rent rate at a city-owned office building by Bush Airport.

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rgr

rgr

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The 4 top execs might be "solidly" Continental, but these are the same 4 that decided to "merge" just 2 years after the more trusted former leadership team decided that United WAS NOT A VIABLE partner.

The fact of the matter is, the Houston area is getting ready to lose lots of decent paying jobs. Middle management will likely be terminated or forced to Chicago. Route planners, accountants, regional VIPs, etc... are all going to be either out of work or out of town. This is a HUGE blow to Houston but particularly to downtown.

The hub might grow, but most jobs at the airport are not as high paying as those downtown. So, even if there isn't a net loss of jobs (which is highly unlikely since nearly 100% of mergers involve downsizing) it would still be a net loss for Houston because rampers, gate agents, etc... don't make nearly as much as the accountants, managers, and sales folks.

Get ready to see about 5,000 Houstonians hit the job market shortly...

your assumptions about the difference in pay between much of downtown and the frontline employees is incorrect.

i don't know what this will do to downtown--there are others on here who know more about that. as for residential, i can see kingwood taking a hit--not sure how big it will be.

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Hartmann

Hartmann

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In an interesting turn of events, the Continental operating certificate will be the one the merged airlines use according to this interview: http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/09/continental-united-lay-out-pla.html

It appears they are moving the merger along faster and it's easier to use an existing certificate than apply for a new one. So, it appears that ATC will still be referring to the new airline as "Continental" on all transmissions.

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scarface

scarface

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The 4 top execs might be "solidly" Continental, but these are the same 4 that decided to "merge" just 2 years after the more trusted former leadership team decided that United WAS NOT A VIABLE partner.

The fact of the matter is, the Houston area is getting ready to lose lots of decent paying jobs. Middle management will likely be terminated or forced to Chicago. Route planners, accountants, regional VIPs, etc... are all going to be either out of work or out of town. This is a HUGE blow to Houston but particularly to downtown.

The hub might grow, but most jobs at the airport are not as high paying as those downtown. So, even if there isn't a net loss of jobs (which is highly unlikely since nearly 100% of mergers involve downsizing) it would still be a net loss for Houston because rampers, gate agents, etc... don't make nearly as much as the accountants, managers, and sales folks.

Get ready to see about 5,000 Houstonians hit the job market shortly...

I'm sad about the news of this happening, but it sounds like you're taking this a little to the extreme. As you stated, most of the jobs that will be lost are the executive "high" paying jobs. That hardly outnumbers the amount of total workers and will not mean doom and gloom for the city or downtown. Like you said, The HUB will continue to grow. It will open up more international connections which will pay off more than just having the few executive big shots in the office.

Not trying to say I'm at all happy with this, but not ready to throw in the towel for Houston just yet. Its long term future is looking more promising and healthy than most of the nation. It's recent growth this past decade has illustrated that.

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C2H

C2H

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This is definitely sad news for Houston any way you look at it. It's never a good thing to lose a Fortune 500 company and a major airline carrier headquarters. I would rather have a less busy airport than lose the headquarters. If it wasn't for Continential, the little improvements to IAH airport would be nonexistant. It already appears to be a somewhat "outdated" airport with the exception of Terminals D and E anyway.

I'm guessing Mr. Smissick is going to get the screwjob at the end. I think there's going to be some renigging of the promises or whatever incentives the big guys at United offered him in this deal.

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editor

editor

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with the announcement of the senior executives, most frequent flyers on "flyertalk" say that the new company looks like continental with united's name, and i agree. the four continental executives are solidly continental, with start dates from the mid-90s. they have been with the company since bethune. three of the four united executives were brought in since bankruptcy and probably have no real identity with or loyalty to the old united. the coo of the new company has been with united since about 1969 when he started as a ramp worker, and worked his way up to the top. finally, the three most important positions of power, the ceo, the president, and the chief marketing officer are continental (jeff will be, both, president and ceo for an unspecified period of time).

future announcements will help fill in what the new company will look like. i'm guessing we'll be getting a number of them over the next month.

Thanks for mentioning FlyerTalk. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it's essentially a HAIF all about getting frequent flyer miles. But the people there are SERIOUSLY knowledgable about the airline industry. I'm a fan. Check it out at http://flyertalk.com.

No, I have no financial, commercial, or other ties to Flyertalk. It's just a really good resource on the internet, and I'm happy to promote a web site that is more signal than noise.

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editor

editor

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Posted

What do you think the rare merger at the low cost end of spectrum will bring (Southwest buying Airtran)? Consolidation to be more specific.

Southwest Airlines to Acquire AirTran

I don't see how this benefits anyone. Most of the routes and cities overlap. At least Continental-United was somewhat complimentary.

I used to fly AirTran a lot until it started cutting cities. I think I flew Chicago to Newark six times or more. But the writing was on the wall when AirTran pulled out of Indianapolis.

I mean, seriously -- How do you run an respectable airline and not serve your home city?

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Hartmann

Hartmann

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The "official" corporate merger day is Friday, although they can't fly as a single airline until they receive a new operating certificate next year.

Correct. Friday is when they can start sharing proprietary information as a merged entity. The new United plane will more than likely fly CO flights since it is a 737-900ER.

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editor

editor

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Posted

The "official" corporate merger day is Friday, although they can't fly as a single airline until they receive a new operating certificate next year.

[slingblade voice]

It'd be a damned shame if that certifcate got lost in the mail. Damned shame.

[/slingblade voice]

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