Originally Posted by
SFOtoORD
They've actually been talking about end of 2011 on the earnings calls for the last couple quarters.
As well as the merger page:
http://www.unitedcontinentalholdings...?section=about
United and Continental will continue to operate separately under United Continental Holdings, Inc. until receipt of a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, which they expect to receive by the end of 2011.
Also, we could be talking about a few different things. IIRC customer day one is supposed to happen sometime over the summer (one website, one checkin counter, one livery, etc.) and that could happen pretty much at any time (although one would assume they would "highlight" that day). And while everything may seem integrated, they can still fly as two seperate airlines beyond customer day one. Furthermore, isn't the single operating certificate "day" almost totally continent upon the FAA/DoT (or whatever gov't body) approval (or issuing the certificate)?