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United-Continental merger


CubsFanBudMan

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I thought this was interesting, as far as post-merger branding goes, but maybe it's more common than I think:

United, Continental announce merger

They are keeping the United name but using it with the Continental identity:

The new airline, to be named United, will retain its world headquarters at 77 W. Wacker Drive in Chicago, where United currently employs about 700 people.

Its aircraft will bear Continental's global logo on their tails and be painted in the Houston-based carriers colors.

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Very interesting about the identity, and sad that yet another legacy carrier name joins TWA, Eastern, Pan Am, Western, et al in history's dumpster. I can see their reasoning though for keeping the CO scheme; UAL was smart enough to ditch the dreary Stephen Wolf "paint 'em gray" scheme* but their new look is nothing special. Continental's is pretty clean and a nice update from the old 'golden tail' days.

I'm sure the big cheeses at both companies have already assured the employees that "no layoffs are planned" and they may even be honest enough to add "for now." Sadly, history tell us that like any merger, this one will get very messy and a lot of human flotsam will be jettisoned along the way. And I'm getting my popcorn ready for when they start working on merging seniority lists for pilots, mechanics, F/As, etc. That may get very entertaining. Don't worry about the airport people, they get hosed every time anyway. :cursing:

* UAL/USAir liveries adopted under Wolf. "Okay, we need something completely different from that last time. Hey, let's put the blue on top!" :rolleyes:

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P.S. To Murtaugh...you really think so? This is better than what they're going with? I guess I like CO better because it's at least inspired by their previous schemes where UA is just some marketing company's bright idea. There's just not much to it.

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Well, that arena on Chicago's west side will stay the United Center (but get a vastly inferior visual rebrand).

All together though, as long as Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" remains the music for the commercials, I'm OK with it...

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P.S. To Murtaugh...you really think so? This is better than what they're going with? I guess I like CO better because it's at least inspired by their previous schemes where UA is just some marketing company's bright idea. There's just not much to it.

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Well, the marketing "refreshers" are uninspired, but it's a great logo and United's typeface is solid, better than Continental's for an airline.

Wonder, somewhat, if keeping the UA identity style and using the Continental name might have looked better. But this was clearly just a corporate throw-in to Continental given United's getting the lion's share of the spoils.

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capt.e6c1839469a540389c550534ba693950-2e9368edcbda4766afc540639e3fe63c-0.jpg?x=400&y=266&q=85&sig=hngNuvgQ9YitvlmLa5F70w--

This is my second airline merger--my wife was a part of Northwest before and during the Delta merger and now she works for United. It will be interesting to see how United treats Continental--hopefully the livery is an indication of fair treatment. Delta seem to think they were the conquerors, and that attitude generally showed during the merger. In NWA HQ buildings, NWA logos were covered up with duct tape long before they were replaced with Delta logos--I guess tacky was much worse the NWA.

As for the United livery, I won't miss either of the two previous looks. The current livery is too blue heavy, not using enough red or orange, and the gradients on the tail are very 90s too. That said, I like United's livery better than the current Delta livery with the tilted logo:

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I know I'm biased, but RIP this:

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Well, that arena on Chicago's west side will stay the United Center (but get a vastly inferior visual rebrand).

Not sure for how long, though. It will certainly get a third logo treatment on the floor, but the big "Madhouse on Madison" signs that went up throughout the UC this NBA/NHL season certainly were a signal to me that they were doing a soft "re-brand" in case that naming rights deal is not renewed when it expires in 2014. How 20 years fly.

Funny, the United Center was one of the first things I thought of as well. As far as the airlines, they are calling it a merger of equals, and certainly the planes look that way.

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Noooo! It's bad enough that my town will be hit with any "possible" layoffs but they ditch the solid United logo for Continental's generic globe?

I guess it means the Continental BBQ pit plane will be easy to modify

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Before anyone mentions it, no I am not going back and changing anything in my AFL Concept Series. :P

That said, this doesn't surprise me in the least bit. As was the case when America West merged with USAir(ways), and when Northwest got gobbled up and :censored: out by merged with Delta, I had to look at the market reach. America West was concentrated, obviously, out west, centered in PHX, while US was based out of Arlington. Delta's punking of merger with Northwest gave it NW's massive global reach. United also has a large global reach in Asia, but I don't see what they stand to gain by absorbing CO (EDIT: after thinking about it, I remember now that CO and UA's networks really don't overlap that much, so it should be a little easier for them).

One other thing that I guess that works in UA/CO United's favor is aircraft types--they both use similar types for both mainline and their regional carriers, so in that way it wouldn't cost as much to crosstrain their pilots/maintenance crews. That was a big-time (and still is, from what I'm told) obstacle for DL/NW...mostly due to NW's older (and I mean OLD) airliners. Delta's in the process of phasing out many of those older aircraft types, but DL's been a mostly Boeing fleet for quite some time now, while prior to the merger NW was flying some of everything--Boeings, Airbus, Fairchild-Dorniers (probably the ugliest planes I've ever seen)--and it costs to crosstrain pilots & maintenance crews. (Or, I guess, how many they will retain--it ain't no big secret that, as Russ alluded to earlier, with any major merger like this, layoffs are inevitable...and they'll most likely cut from the rank-and-files at the bottom. I'm a case example.)

But let's get to the real deal here--the branding. ^_^ At least with DL/NW, they tried. (Though, for them, it wasn't hard...both companies had triangular [elements to their] logos and used the color red, so tilt the widgets 45 degrees & PRESTO!). I liked what US did with its new livery after merging with America West--even if the subliminal flagstripes were a direct rip of HP's subliminal zigzags. But this here (if this is the final guise) just smacks of "f-it-make it work". However, having said that, if there's one thing going for it, it's that at least the color gold is rather unique among domestic airlines. (I do kinda wonder if they might try the fading-stripe thing UA had on its livery...except in gold, keep the top part white, and do the underbellies blue, like UA's planes are now, even while keeping the globe on the tailfin. That could work.)

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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BTW, this makes me glad that Frontier Airlines is keeping most of its identity (it just gobbled up my hometown airline Midwest), only adopting Midwest's "Best Care in the Air" slogan and its on-board fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies! (if it hadn't, there would have been a riot!)

The one identity "change" is that they've added a badger as the newest of their spokesanimals on the wing...and they've already launched a contest to name it!

http://www.frontiermidwest.com/weare1/funstuff/name-the-badger.aspx (Wisconsin residents only)

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BTW, this makes me glad that Frontier Airlines is keeping most of its identity (it just gobbled up my hometown airline Midwest), only adopting Midwest's "Best Care in the Air" slogan and its on-board fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies! (if it hadn't, there would have been a riot!)

The one identity "change" is that they've added a badger as the newest of their spokesanimals on the wing...and they've already launched a contest to name it!

http://www.frontiermidwest.com/weare1/funstuff/name-the-badger.aspx (Wisconsin residents only)

I like Frontier's branding and livery and I'm glad its staying around. The joke in the airline industry was that--

Midwest + Frontier = Midtier

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BTW, this makes me glad that Frontier Airlines is keeping most of its identity (it just gobbled up my hometown airline Midwest), only adopting Midwest's "Best Care in the Air" slogan and its on-board fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies! (if it hadn't, there would have been a riot!)

Whoa...that's news to me! Man, I loved Midwest. Used to do some ground/cabin servicing for those guys. (In fact, my crew and I LITERALLY counted the minutes until the terminator flight came in...specifically so we could hurry up and offload that thing and then race up into the galley to gobble up whatever food they had left up there...specifically those cookies.) I suppose this also means the end of quite possibly one of my favorite logos ever. Eh well...

...Maybe I'll come around to Frontier one day. At least they (still) have cookies.

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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That said, this doesn't surprise me in the least bit. As was the case when America West merged with USAir(ways), and when Northwest got gobbled up and :censored: out by merged with Delta...

You can always tell when someone has personal experience with mergers. B) Waaay back in the day, a guy I worked with had come from National and was there when Pan Am took them over. He said after they combined operations that National and Pan Am agents manning the same ticket counter wouldn't talk to one another. That must have made for a pleasant environment and some excellent customer service.

As for the age of NW's planes...well, I started with TranStar in 1986 and one of our DC-9-50s was N671MC. She was delivered to Swissair in 1976 under registration HB-ISR...

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...and Muse Air bought her in October of '83. This is her sister, N676MC (can't find pic of 671 but couldn't resist showing off Muse's unique-at-the-time scheme).

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Southwest bought Muse Air and it became TranStar in 1986. Took this shot of N671MC after work one day. Recognize the airport, Buc?

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After we sank, N671MC made her way to Eastern (this is sister ship N677MC)...

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...then Continental (this is N670MC)...

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...until they sold her to NW.

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She ultimately got a makeover...

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...and another one after DL came calling.

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So yeah...some of NW/DL's birds have some age on them. :P

BTW, this makes me glad that Frontier Airlines is keeping most of its identity (it just gobbled up my hometown airline Midwest), only adopting Midwest's "Best Care in the Air" slogan and its on-board fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies! (if it hadn't, there would have been a riot!)

The one identity "change" is that they've added a badger as the newest of their spokesanimals on the wing...and they've already launched a contest to name it!

http://www.frontiermidwest.com/weare1/funstuff/name-the-badger.aspx (Wisconsin residents only)

Love Frontier's tails and animal theme but I don't like the gigantic billboard name on the fuselage. Looks goofy.

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As someone who flies Continental most of the time, this is going to be weird. Especially since it is the Continental plane and logo with United slapped on it.

I guess the one good thing is that we get to see the CO logo and colors on a 747 again.

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Wow, I knew a lot of planes were old, but BlueSky, your timeline of N671MC (with photos, thank you) dating back to 1976 creeps me out just a little bit. That plane is almost as old as me... but maybe that should be taken as a testament to quality.

It's cool to see all of the different paint jobs, but to see them all on the same plane? Again, wow. I'm going to have to check that site out.

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Wow, I knew a lot of planes were old, but BlueSky, your timeline of N671MC (with photos, thank you) dating back to 1976 creeps me out just a little bit. That plane is almost as old as me... but maybe that should be taken as a testament to quality.

It's cool to see all of the different paint jobs, but to see them all on the same plane? Again, wow. I'm going to have to check that site out.

Prepare to spend about two hours over at a.net if you do go there. ^_^

And yeah, you'd be amazed at how old some of the aircraft you fly on are. However, don't fret it too much...you see, the "quality" of the aircraft itself isn't so much mated to its age as it is the number of hours/miles flown (and obviously its maintenance record). So theoretically, you could have an old 1976 DC-9, screamy whiny engines & all, that's in better shape than a Boeing 737 manufactured and delivered 10 years later, if the 737 was flown/operated for more hours than the DC-9 while not necessarily being maintained as well. (And again, it also goes back to maintenance track record.)

That's one of the many things people will never know about aircraft until they're ass-deep into the industry, as Russell well knows. (And by the way, Russ...I guess I should recognize that terminal in yout TransStar pic, even though it looks completely different now. I was half-expecting you to post up the well-known pic of the Eastern aircraft that damn near cracked in half after it landed in PNS back in the early '90s. ^_^ )

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

|| dribbble || Behance ||

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Wow, I knew a lot of planes were old, but BlueSky, your timeline of N671MC (with photos, thank you) dating back to 1976 creeps me out just a little bit. That plane is almost as old as me... but maybe that should be taken as a testament to quality.

It's cool to see all of the different paint jobs, but to see them all on the same plane? Again, wow. I'm going to have to check that site out.

Well, it's not by coincidence that a plane that old can still fly safely. Unlike a car where you do some fluid changes and just replace whatever breaks, these aircraft undergo regularly scheduled checks, the most extensive of which are called C-checks and D-checks. Every few years, the plane is literally disassembled, inside and out, and everything is inspected, many items by advanced scanning techniques that go inside the metal. Numerous things are replaced on a time schedule, i.e. whether they're worn/broken or not. Here's a basic explanation.

I'm not saying it's a perfect process - Alaska 261 is a sad example - but overall, it's works. The Air Force is flying B-52s built in the 1950's, and that's not by luck - like airlines, they routinely inspect, repair, and upgrade their aircraft. Hope all that puts your mind at ease. :D

Now there have been a few "WTF"'s I've seen in my career. Remember this bizarre deal from 1988?

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That's N73711...an ex-AirCal 737.

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So that was '88 and I took this pic in 1990 at San Jose when it was an AA hub. AA took over AirCal in 1987 and these are also ex-AirCal 737s. Look at the one closest to the camera and note the metal patches at the bottom left of the door. Those are repairs to areas that had shown fatigue cracks.

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A little scary to look at, but not unsafe if properly repaired. New regulations ultimately came out of the Aloha accident and the inspection and repair requirements were tightened up considerably. That pic always amuses me btw because of the unintended timing. As you can see, we had no jetbridges so passengers walked across the ramp and up airstairs to board. Because of the angle and timing, the little girl walking to the 2nd plane in line looks like she's driving the pushback tractor. :D

So back to how it's done. Here's a link showing an aerial view of American's Alliance Maintenance Base in Fort Worth. Note the shadows on the roof from parts of the cantilever structure. It's built that way to avoid having to have internal support columns or beams. So it's wide open inside and can accommodate 7 widebody jets wingtip to wingtip. AA also has a major maintenance base in Tulsa.

It's surprisingly tough to find a representative photo of a heavy check but I finally found this one of a NW jet that will give you an idea of just how extensive the process is. It takes several days and that's with mechanics working 24/7 because it's so costly to have the airplane out of service. I'm telling you...they run those planes through the wringer when they're in for heavy maintenance.

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Yeah, I love talking about this stuff. B)

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