Monday morning’s news was partly dominated with headlines that the world’s largest airline is now United Airlines – a result of its $3 billion merger with Continental Airlines. According to the New York Times, United is buying Continental, and the combined company will keep the United name and be based in Chicago. However, it was reported that Jeffery A. Smisek, Continental’s chief executive, will run the company, and United’s Glenn Tilton will be non-executive chairman. In addition, the merged company will keep the Continental logo, livery and colors as well as maintain a large presence in Houston.
In a statement posted on a new Web site, the airlines said the merger would have “minimal” effects on its front-line employees, with reductions in staff mainly from “retirements, attrition and voluntary programs.”
We think this will be interesting to watch as we’ve reported on some of the variances between these two companies in the past few months and it seems Continental employees are typically more satisfied than United Employees. (see chart below)
