Originally Posted by
whytravelsomuch
New livery means absolutely nothing other than a new livery for AA. Both airlines have to continue operating as if no merger were going to happen because its quite possible no merger will happen. It just smart business sense. Some of you might recall what happened after the first time UA and US tried to merge. All the attentions were focused on the merger, which didnt end up happening, and that caused quite a few problems.
And as Tim Horton said in his statement the new livery has been in the works even prior to all this merger talk.
+1. Companies have to keep operating even if mergers are in the works - they can't just put it to the side.
Even if there is a merger, the antitrust and DOT reviews could take a year before the companies can complete the merger transaction, and then the systems integration could take even longer after that.