TrnsWrld From United States of America, joined exactly 14 years ago today! , 763 posts, RR: 0 Posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1920 times:
Basically what the topic says. What is the largest airline merger in world aviation history? Basically what two airlines had the most employees, network system, and fleet that merged together to one.
Ssides From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 4059 posts, RR: 23 Reply 1, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1877 times:
I would have to say that AA-TWA would be up there.
Of course, once KLM-Air France goes through, that one should take the cake.
HNLFlyboy From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 321 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1831 times:
Are we forgetting UA and Pan Am? That was a big one for the Pacific routes.
JumboBumbo From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1806 times:
I don't recall, but was US-UA supposed to be a more extensive code share or an out-and-out merger. That would have been the biggest had it gone through.
Oznznut From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 153 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1790 times:
Dont think Ua buying the Pacific rights/assets of PA counts a a merger. But I do feel one of the worst ever mergers was PA/National. PA paid a HUGE chunk of change to get National's routes. Had they just waited a few months, they could have flown anywhere they wanted after deregulation. Just MHO, but I think that merger is one of the basic causes of PA going into history
Dave
MCIB757 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 280 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1674 times:
DeltaMIA From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 1672 posts, RR: 19 Reply 9, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1629 times:
I think more of Pan Am went to DL then UA. Had DL purchased everything from Pan Am that would have been the largest instead some Pacific ops went to UA, Trans-Atlantic (excluding LHR) went to DL and eventually most of the Caribbean went to AA. DL did not purchase the Caribbean/South American routes due to the instability in the region however five years after that they wished they had.
I would say AA/TWA is the largest, but I am sure DL/Western is up there. What about the Canadian airlines? That is a good question. I think at the time of the merger TWA wasn't as big as Western, but AA was much larger than DL was in 1987.
It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.
EMBQA From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 9286 posts, RR: 13 Reply 10, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1611 times:
Pan Am never merged with anyone. They where already out of business when UAL and DAL picked up their assets. As far as an active merger....I'll go with TWA-AA as said above, but I'm guessing Western and Delta was a close one.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog"
Iflyatldl From United States of America, joined Nov 2003, 1936 posts, RR: 4 Reply 12, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1606 times:
How about the BOAC merger with BEA and I want to say(please correct me if I'm wrong) and British Caledonian?
Ah, Summer, Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox and Beer.....
AirframeAS From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 14150 posts, RR: 26 Reply 13, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1581 times:
AA/TWA merger is probably the biggest AFTER AA bought out QQ. (Reno Air)
UA bought out Pan Am?? I didnt know that.
[Edited 2004-03-09 03:38:44]
A Safe Flight Begins With Quality Maintenance On The Ground.
ContinentalEWR From United States of America, joined May 2000, 3762 posts, RR: 15 Reply 14, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1581 times:
UA/US would have been the largest.
American/TWA was quite large, as was US Air's take over of Piedmont and PSA, which occured one year apart.
Continental's acquisition of PE was also quite large, along with the formation of Texas Air Corp. out of CO/EA/PE/F9.
Texas Air was the world's largest airline holding company until EAL went under in 1991.
ContinentalEWR From United States of America, joined May 2000, 3762 posts, RR: 15 Reply 15, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1569 times:
United purchased Pan Am's Heathrow routes and slots, as well as its route network to Latin America, which included flights from Miami and JFK.
Russophile From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 16, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1547 times:
Other large mergers also include:
Air Canada and Canadian Airlines into Air Canada
And what about Indian Airlines and Vayudoot -- from memory Vayudoot had a staff of something like 25,000 for an airline with only a single aircraft left at the end of its life.
AirframeAS From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 14150 posts, RR: 26 Reply 17, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1524 times:
Ahh that explains who go what in the Pan Am liquidation. BTW...isnt Pan Am still around but as an LCC with much smaller aircraft? Sort of like Pan Am II? I know that sounds really stupid to call it that.
A Safe Flight Begins With Quality Maintenance On The Ground.
Spark From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 431 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1516 times:
I would be surprised if it wasn't the AA/TWA merger. That combined two of the biggest airlines in the world, however I really don't understand what they got out of it. Much like Reno Air acquisition, AA seems to have junked all the routes.
As far as what it did for the airline, I think NW/Republic merger was the most significant. It really made NWO (at the time) a major domestic US airline. I just wished Republic hadn't had bought Hughes Air Worst. I liked the Banana in the sky.
Isitsafenow From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4984 posts, RR: 26 Reply 19, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1469 times:
The largest domestic only merger was June 1961 when United bought Capital.
That made UA the largest airline in the USA by FAR over Eastern who was second in routes and equiptment at that time. There was loose talk of an AA-EA merger in 1963 and a Continental-National(the one that merged with Pan Am) about the same time. The C A B (civil aeronautics board) shot them both down because they claimed two prosperous companies cannot merge. Capital was hurting bad when UA came to their rescue. This is early 60's stuff, but quite factual.
safe (your self-acclaimed airline historian)I have grey hair. That means I can make that claim.......LOL.........
If two people agree on EVERYTHING, then one isn't necessary.
Syncmaster From United States of America, joined Jul 2002, 1983 posts, RR: 14 Reply 20, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1441 times:
My guess would be AA/TW, but once KLM/AF goes through....that will probably be it.
AirframeAS, yes! PanAm is still operating like that, check them out at:
RoseFlyer From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 8739 posts, RR: 52 Reply 21, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1440 times:
Well monitarily the largest merger/takeover in Europe was the 913 million (US$) paid. The 11.6 billion $ deal between UA and US would have been the biggest.
If you have never designed an airplane part before, let the real designers do the work!
IndustrialPate From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 23, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 1349 times:
Corrections --
Texas Air Group purchased Continental and merged it into Texas Air International, but retained the Continental name. Later, Texas Air Group purchased People’s Express (which also owned Frontier) and merged Continental and New York Air (which was began as a wholly-owned subsidy) into People’s Express, but kept the Continental name. Texas Air Group also purchased Eastern, but was never able to merge it into Continental (or vice versa)… however, many of Eastern’s assets were “transferred” to Continental. Many of Frontier’s assets (specifically aircraft) wound up with United.
United and Delta purchased portions of Pan Am’s assets, the airline was never merged into any airline.
American purchased most of TWA’s assets, the airline was not officially merged into American.
- - -
Asking ‘which merger was the largest’ is a broad question. I’m sure there’s a different answer for value (including that adjusted to today’s value). I’m sure it’d be one of the following:
-- National merging into Pan Am
-- Western merging into Delta
-- Republic merging into Northwest
-- Piedmont and PSA merging into US Air
-- Continental and Frontier merging into People’s Express, but retaining the Continental name (even though Texas Air Group purchased People’s Express/Frontier)
Dtwclipper From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 1323 times:
industrialpate,
Thank you for articulating all of that so much better than I could have.
DTWClipper
25 Aa757first: From USAirways.com 1989 Piedmont is integrated into USAir, the largest merger in airline history. The merger brings with it Piedmont's international r
26 Syncmaster: Thanks for the correction IndustrialPate.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined exactly 14 years ago today! 
, 763 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
Printer friendly format 
