doulasc From United States of America, joined Dec 2011, 354 posts, RR: 0 Posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 14662 times:
Here is a good topic. Around 1958 TWA ran by Howard Hughes was thinking about buying Northeast Airlines.
Also Northeast and Northwest were talking a merger-who would survive?
Western and Continental-new compmany Continental Western
Pan Am and TWA-would either name survive or a new airline created.
A lot of mergers did not happen because the CAB would not approve them.
Anyone want to add anything else?
deltairlines From United States of America, joined May 1999, 8774 posts, RR: 12 Reply 1, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 14685 times:
United-US Airways in 2000, with the DCA ops were going to be spun off into a new airline (that had an AMR investment) called DC Air.
BA0197 From United States of America, joined Jul 2011, 175 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 14612 times:
BA and AA initially wanted to merge operations however were rejected by the European and American courts. They eventually established their JBA after multiple attempts at satisfying the regulators.
BA and KL, failed after it was thought that BA was not giving KL enough credit for their operation.
BA and Swiss?
AA Agent-IAH: My comments and opinions do not necessarily represent my employer.
beechtobus From United States of America, joined Nov 2011, 184 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 14589 times:
I was excited about Frontiers and Western Pacific's merger before it fell through. I believe there was once upon a time talk of Frontier 1 merging with UAL before the former went belly up.
If I just may say that would have been a formidable alliance. Very powerful. If I may, what happened. Did BA decide to go with oneworld or did Swiss back out?
AA Agent-IAH: My comments and opinions do not necessarily represent my employer.
Polot From United States of America, joined Jul 2011, 1587 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 14527 times:
Quoting BA0197 (Reply 6): If I just may say that would have been a formidable alliance. Very powerful. If I may, what happened. Did BA decide to go with oneworld or did Swiss back out?
LH bought Swiss, so there went the relationship. Swiss was also getting close to AA and I think many expected them to join Oneworld eventually.
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 21675 posts, RR: 23 Reply 8, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 14451 times:
Quoting doulasc (Thread starter): Also Northeast and Northwest were talking a merger-
Northwest and National also agreed to merge in 1970 (with NW the surviving carrier) but the CAB wouldn't agree that National's recently-awarded MIA-LAX route could be included without further hearings etc., and NW backed out of the merger.
SCQ83 From United States of America, joined Oct 2012, 469 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 14339 times:
In 2006/07, before BA/IB merged into IAG, Lufthansa showed public interest on taking over Iberia.
As for Spanair, the word in the street was that Qatar Airways was to take a stake in the company (à la Etihad with Air Berlin) and save it... but that never happened and they went bankrupt almost 1 year ago.
VV701 From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 6673 posts, RR: 17 Reply 11, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 14281 times:
FR is currently making its second attempt to buy EI. Its first attempt was rejected by the competition authorities.
As a result of that first attempt FR already owns 29.4 percent of EI's equity. However the Irish government also owns 25.4 per cent of the airline.
A big sticking point in any multinational purchase are the international bilateral air service agreements that usually specify that services be limited to operations of one or sometimes more airlines from the countries signing the agreement. This is why AF and KL retain their individual identities and are legally still French and Dutch. Similarly the IAG partners, BA and IB and the members of the Lufthansa Group like LX, OS and LH itself retain their individual nationalities and identities.
Although the trend towards new Open Skies Agreements suggests things may be changing, it only needs one significant country, such as the Russian Federation, to insist on maintaining traditional bilateral agreements to ensure that multi-national mergers do not result in the identity of the merged airlines disappearing.
spartanmjf From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 466 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 14131 times:
Was there not talk of a PA / NW merger in the late 1980's?
sparky35805 From United States of America, joined Dec 2007, 244 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 14077 times:
Eastern-American in 1962 with American the surviving carrier.CAB denied the plans in 1963.
Sparky
Polot From United States of America, joined Jul 2011, 1587 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 13979 times:
Quoting COSPN (Reply 16): Northwest and Continental in 1992
There was also Delta and Continental in the mid 90s. It was because of that takeover attempt that NW eventually got their golden share as they helped CO fight off DL.
rampart From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 2871 posts, RR: 7 Reply 19, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 13965 times:
Wasn't both Pan Am and Texas International bidding for National, one reason Pan Am paid too much for National?
If TI had acquired NA...
CO and EA might have been left alone...
and...
CIDFlyer From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 2008 posts, RR: 3 Reply 21, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 13947 times:
I dont think it was ever announced, but there were talks at one time about AirTran/TWA, and TWA/US. at the time US/UA was announced NW/AA were in talks about merging too. I still think US/TW would have been a good combo, combined with HP. Definitely would have given US coverage in the midwest via STL.
The TWA mess plus the US-HP mess probably would have caused angry pilots to crash helicopters in the headquarters of the striking Executives In Dubai
TWA was actively looking to merge throughout the 90s. No one wanted to. Most other carriers were doing better.at the time, and NO ONE wanted to be a part of the TWA mess. There were just so many issues.
rampart From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 2871 posts, RR: 7 Reply 24, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 13873 times:
Quoting CIDFlyer (Reply 21):
I dont think it was ever announced, but there were talks at one time about AirTran/TWA, and TWA/US. at the time US/UA was announced NW/AA were in talks about merging too. I still think US/TW would have been a good combo, combined with HP. Definitely would have given US coverage in the midwest via STL.
I recall it being an HP+TW proposal, before US was in the picture, I could be wrong. I agree, it might have been a good combo.
-Rampart
25 HermansCVR580: Don't know which year but American wanted Republic.
26 doulasc: I would think that American Airlines and Braniff would have been a good merger in the 1970s. It would open up South America for AA.
27 UA787DEN: Braniff never really made money, and was an interesting carrier, to say the least. As far as airlines to acquire, Braniff would have been higher on t
29 Wingtips56: Swiss was a member-elect of oneworld. I was working with AA and my oneworld colleagues in 1995-96 on the coordinated Ticketing Manual. LX was getting
30 UA787DEN: US-UA mergers have popped up over the years. I believe UA was looking at options, and Star Alliance partner that would strengthen the East US popped
31 BDL757: I've also heard from some people (some of them high up the food chain) at work that before DL and NW merged that DL and UA were to merge but at that t
32 Independence76: Back in the 1993, Swissair, Scandinavian (SAS), KLM, and Austrian announced a merger agreement called "Alcazar." It progressed until the Swiss court r
33 JohnClipper: There was talk of TW and PI before US entered the picture...
34 9lflyguy: More of an acquisition but Southwest and Frontier recently before Airtran. Then before our demise Colgan and Mesaba were going to be folded into one.
35 Phen: Not entirely accurate; FR has just had it's third attempt to take over EI effectively quashed by the Irish Government who has clearly stated that it
36 Fuling: Didn't Air New Zealand try to buy out Ansett Australia just before Ansett was grounded?
37 VHHYI: They owned Ansett (having acquired half from TNT in the mid-90s and the rest from News Corp later on)!, except for Ansett International which was 51%
38 okAY: AY and SK, since the dawn of time. Never happened, never will. okAY
39 skywaymanaz: At one point Air Florida was trying to acquire Western but Air Florida went under instead.
40 jfk777: Pan AM was getting funds from a Private Equity shop called the Arlie Group to help fund the buyout of NW. That would have been a great merger returni
41 ABQopsHP: Always thought the same. What would it be like now? I was working for HP during this time, and was hopeful something would happen. It was becoming ob
42 VV701: I understood the first bid dated back to 5 October 2006 by when FR had obtained a 19.2 per cent stake in EI. Subsequently by 28 November it had incre
43 bobloblaw: United considered buying PI in 1987 but US got the jump and won. How different the industry would had that happened. I am pretty certain TW and US dis
44 ozark1: American and Western tried to merge as well.
45 cosyr: This one happened, and it saved Continental, who was almost bought by Delta. Northwest bought a controlling share, without the intention of merging t
46 AVLAirlineFreq: In the mid-1960s, Ozark proposed merging with Central Airlines. Central later merged with the original Frontier (and of course, Ozark merged with TW i
47 Lofty: Before BA jumped into bed with AA they tried US and UA.
48 GSPflyer: Before DL and NW merged, didn't DL attempt to merge with US? I'm wanting to say it was in 2006.
49 flyjoe: In 1999, United looked at acquiring America West. I had just left working with US in DEN and was hired by HP in ABQ about that time. I remembered bein
50 FWAERJ: Before the WN/TZ deal and codeshare, TZ had a deal in place with FL when TZ filed for Chapter 11. FL would have got the MDW hub, leases to 14 MDW gate
51 wn676: There was HP/TZ in 2004. HP would have assumed the aircraft leases and MDW gates with TZ continuing as a charter outfit and retaining its debt.
52 CoachClass: [ I think it was the other way around with DL refusing to merge. I remember reading about the NA-NW merger talks and although it seemed to be ideal an
53 BeachBoy: AQ and HA on multiple occasions. We all know how that eventually played out.
54 srbmod: That lasted all of about two weeks, as FL got a look at TWA's books and broke off the deal. More than likely the crippling Karabu deal TWA had with I
55 FWAERJ: Thanks; I didn't remember how HP's bid for TZ went. Would C8 (ATA Connection) and their SAABs have become America West Express then, much like how FL
56 Cody: August 1984...Northeastern International proposed to merge with Air Florida which was in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, but later backed out. Northeastern sub
57 bmacleod: Didn't DL and CO have some merger talk in late 1990s?
58 FI642: Yes, until NW found out about an environmental nightmare they would have to clean up at MDW. BN did make money in South America. Until Harding and ga
59 SPaceshipDC10: And the new company was to be named Symphony.
60 AirGabon: I think there was a project of merger between AF and Sabena in the early 90s?
61 UA787DEN: Yeah, BI expanded too fast after deregulation. NW tried mergers and takeovers of a lot of airlines. Was it mostly just for metal?
62 canyonblue17: Considering Southwest's acquisition of Airtran, don't forget not too long ago Southwest first showed interest in acquiring Frontier.
63 ABQopsHP: I completely forgot about the UA/HP thing. Come to think of it, it scared the crap out of us, because we knew what UA would do. Just grab the planes,
64 FWAERJ: IIRC, until BA got in bed with US and T5 opened at ORD, BA flights departed from T1 at ORD (with arrivals at the temporary T4 like everyone else). UA
65 HA_DC9: Thank god. This would have been a disaster. By the time the final occasion was announced back 2001 (backed by Greg Brenneman) AQ was beginning it's d
66 ord: Braniff made money every year in the 70s, except 1970 and 1979.
67 bobloblaw: People might forget but UA wanted to buy US in 1995.
68 mayor: I read that NW's proposed merger with Northeast was thought to be a sure thing until they found out that the MIA-LAX route was not to be part of the
69 OzarkD9S: Southern Airways, before merging with North Central, also had merger talks with Ozark, Texas International, Piedmont and Allegheny. As one top Exec at
70 MAS777: Qantas and Malaysia Airlines considered a merger around 2007 but never moved forward. This was re-explored by Alan Joyce more recently but talks event
71 Phen: FR made a second attempt in December 2008 which failed - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7757971.stm That article seems to be a letter from a rea
72 Skyguy: The failure of this proposed merger spawned the seeds that eventually resulted in the first major airline alliance, Star Alliance, as a way for airli
73 doulasc: I do remember around 1987 I was living in South Florida and Braniff-2 and Pan Am talking about a merger. Braniff-2 was going to Buy Pan Am and Braniff
74 PITrules: Related to all this was Atlantic Coast acquiring PSA, Allegheny, and Piedmont.
75 WALmsp: Same story going round regarding WA and CO. WA won the coin toss; Six backed out. Don't know if it's true, but a good story nonetheless.
76 justinlee: Anybody interested in the SQ and MU merge proposal? I think that might be the largest opportunity in SQ's history.
77 FWAERJ: Ironically, three years later, DH decided to stop being affiliated with UA (and DL) as part of UA's Chapter 11 proceedings and fly solo as Independen
78 UA787DEN: Air China has too much of a say in the merger and the Government has too much control. Also, CX really doesn't want it.
79 Tomassjc: An AeroMexico-Mexicana merger was proposed a few times. Once after the fall of the Peso in the early 80s, when the companies instead cooperated on rou
80 USPIT10L: Yep, UA wanted additional Airbus to fight MetroJet and US at IAD at the time. Then Wolf came calling offering US for the taking.
81 WA707atMSP: After PA sold their Pacific routes to UA, DL and Northwest came very close to merging, because NW needed more domestic feed to fight UA. NW would have
82 ckfred: NW was planning to buy the original Midway Airlines (ML). Then, NW did a due dilligence and didn't like what it saw. It backed out, and ML wound up fi
83 justinlee: In return, China Eastern acquired Shanghai Airlines and kicked the Star Alliance out of SHA
84 PSAJet17: Don't know where you got this info from but here is the chronological list of Allegheny/US Air, PSA and Piedmont. 1979 : Allegheny changes its name t
85 PITrules: I'm referring to today's Allegheny. Piedmont, and PSA. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/03/bu...al-to-buy-3-regional-airlines.html
86 Mainliner: I read a recent interview with Ed Colodny, former CEO of US, saying that US was in merger talks with CO in the 90's. I hadn't heard this one before.
87 FWAERJ: Neither have I, so I presume this was before Gordon Bethune became CEO of CO.
88 mayor: Exactly what time period are we talking about, here? PA sold the Pacific operation to UA in April of '85 and DL announced the merger with Western in
89 WA707atMSP: Fall 1985, prior to the RC / NW deal. Although DL was doing well, NW was doing just as well, and had less debt on their balance sheet (a legacy of Do
90 1stfl94: A few more I can think of VS-BMI- plenty of discussions in the search when this became a possibility and why it never happened VS-Dan Air- Virgin were
91 zippyjet: Way back in the day, there was talk several times about an Eastern National merger. I'm not sure who would have been the surviving carrier.