Merger mania: US with AA? DL with US?

After another long break, your volunteer-public servant-air travel blogger is back, with a roundup of some recent developments in the airline world. Two big ongoing themes are the American bankruptcy and implications for other companies, most importantly US Airways, and the new federal rules requiring airlines to include both the fare and taxes and fees in the initial quote you see in an online display of the price of a ticket. We will do a separate posting on the blog later today on the second topic. Catching up with merger specualtion, one important story was the confirmation by US Airways that it's evaluating a merger or partnership with American parent AMR while it operates in Chapter 11. CEO Doug Parker confirmed the speculation (turns out it was very well-informed speculation a week or so earlier, by reporters for Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal) last week during the quarterly earnings conference call with analysts. Read More