Originally Posted by
flyer4512
About 3 months after the airlines started flying under the same FAA flight certificate the FF programs were merged
The airlines attained a single operating certificate from the FAA on November 30, 2011. That day, all Continental Airlines flights began to use the "United" call sign during air traffic control communications. This marked the end of Continental Airlines.
The single operating certificate was acquired and all flights use the United callsign, some Continental Airlines flights continued into 2012. On March 3, 2012, Continental's passenger reservation system and frequent flyer program was merged into United.
The current deadline for AA and Usair to be operating under one FAA certificate in Jan 18, 2014
This deal is moving faster because AMR needs it ( or at least has it in it's plans) to emerge from bankruptcy
So is May 4 really out of the question ?
The original planned date of CO/UA program merger was much earlier than the March 2012 date. It has postponed several times until they came up with the Dec 2011 date, and then one more postponement to the March 2012 date and it finally merged.
The official merger date of CO and UA was far earlier than the One Single FAA certificate granted date. Their merger was approved and in process for a long time before the single certificate was in place.
US government finally approved the CO/UA merger on Aug 27 2010. That is 15 months before the Single FAA Certificate was granted in Nov 2011.
The deadline of current AMR and US one FAA certificate notwithstanding, such date can always change, especially in light of the current plan is being challenged by the government. No official approval in sight yet. US government is asking a large divestification of assets of the 2 airlines as conditions of approval, or at least that is what the Justice dept brought to the negotiation table.