OAG Report Provides United and Continental Merger Analysis
Press Release Source: OAG Aviation On Monday May 10, 2010, 3:01 pm EDT

WASHINGTON, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the May 3, 2010 announcement of Continental and United airlines of a merger agreement, OAG Aviation Consulting Services has compiled the following information and analysis of a potential partnership between the two airlines:

Worldwide & U.S. Domestic Market Share and Rankings - Based on both Available Seat Miles (ASMs) and Seat Capacity
Market share at Top Hubs
Regional Partner Summary
Fleet Overview

The findings show that the proposed merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines would create the largest airline in the world by many measures – airline revenue, available seat miles (ASMs) and revenue passenger miles (RPMs) – both within the United States and worldwide. Delta Air Lines today is the leader in all of those categories.

The new United Airlines will be second to Delta in terms of worldwide seat departures, and third behind Delta and Southwest Airlines in domestic seats. American Airlines will move from second to third in U.S. and worldwide ASMs, and from third to fourth in total and domestic seats.

"Merger assessments usually focus on shares of the partners in a variety of differently-defined markets, ranging from a single airport pair, to dominance of one or more hubs to a set of traffic flows through hubs," said Sanford (Sandy) Rederer, Senior Consultant, OAG Aviation Consulting Services. "This information is of great interest to the communities whose air service will be impacted by the merger."

OAG's comprehensive databases, which summarize market shares for the two airlines (including United Express, Continental Express and Continental Connection operations) at airports where their operations are prominent, show a combined 70% share of seat departures at Cleveland and 87% at Houston Intercontinental Airport (or 68% including Houston Hobby Airport as well as Intercontinental). Shares are 37% at Chicago (48% for O'Hare alone) and 26% for New York (but 73% for Newark, alone).

By way of comparison, American has a 74% seat departure share in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (this includes Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International; 86% at DFW Airport alone); Delta has a 76% seat share at Atlanta and higher-than-80% seat shares at Detroit and Minneapolis. US Airways operates almost 90% of Charlotte seats.

Also available in the attached report is a fleet overview of the two airlines. Both airlines operate significant numbers of narrowbody Boeing 757 aircraft and widebody Boeing 767s and 777s. United also flies the Boeing 747 on its extensive Pacific system. In the important category of aircraft with 100 to 150 seats, United operates the Airbus 320 family and Continental flies Boeing 737s.

"Fleet mix is significant during an airline merger, going well beyond how many aircraft each airline has and affecting the management and integration of operations and pilot workforces," said Rederer.

All data is for May 2010, and has been compiled from OAG Schedules iNET, © 2010, UBM Aviation Worldwide Ltd. OAG Schedules iNET tracks trends and changes in commercial airline schedules, routes, frequency and capacity developments, dating back to 1979. Detailed data is available upon request and for purchase, please contact: diana.cronan@ubmaviation.com.
About OAG

OAG provides the industry's most accurate single source for airline information, with essential aviation data and analytics sourced from its comprehensive proprietary airline schedules, fleet and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) databases. OAG is a UBM Aviation business. For more information, go to http://www.oagaviation.com/.

About OAG Aviation Consulting Services
OAG Aviation Consulting Services is a unit of OAG Aviation, specializing in providing value-added analysis anchored in the OAG rich databases. Services include business planning; air service development; economic, market analysis and forecasting; industry issue analysis, air cargo; maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO); and expert witness.

Clients rely on OAG Professional Services' resources and skills to supplement internal staff, validate internal studies and provide independent opinions to meet government and regulatory requirements.