Continental, United Airlines Join Together

The $3.2 billion merger deal between Continental Airlines Inc. and United Airlines Corp. has been finalized on Friday, bringing two major airlines together to work as a combined company known as United Continental Holdings Inc. But they will continue to operate separately until they are approved by Federal Aviation Administration to receive a single operating permit which will allow them to combine their aircrafts, crews as well as maintenance procedures.

The merged company, which is the world’s largest airline in terms of traffic, will be based in Chicago and managed by Jeff Smisek, the chairman and CEO of the Continental Airlines. United Airlines chairman and CEO, Glenn Tilton, will serve as the non-executive chairperson of the board of directors, which will consist of 16 members.

The combined company possesses unrestricted cash of $9 billion, and would’ve had $31.4 billion of annual revenue, bases on figures for one year ended 30th June.

"Today's merger closing is a first big step”, said a statement from Smisek, thanking the employees of both airlines. "We have been moving quickly but thoughtfully on our integration planning, and I'm pleased with the progress we've made. We have a lot of hard work ahead as we begin to implement our integration plan”.

Travelers of United and Continental can interact with those carriers just like they always do, and frequent-flier packages will continue to be offered separately. However, passengers can expect more unified services, after the airlines integrate key marketing and customer service activities.