Originally Posted by
jhayes_1780
Aside from the whole I hate the devils chariot too.....
But the article indicates UA has a minority interest in both EV and C5. Can someone with a better understanding of the business tell me why they do not just let ZW take this hit?
I'm no expert either, but ZW is a contract or fee for departure in which UA and ZW came to an agreement for a certain amount of aircraft for certain number of years. It also may be because ZW owns its own airplanes. This contract is hard to break. C5 and EV are partially owned by United, meaning they have a lot more control over them and their aircraft. United probably owns many of their aircraft too. I'm not sure how many though. In the end its a whipsaw between two subsidiaries to undercut each other in costs. It sucks for the employees. They could be bluffing just to cut costs. Perhaps they could merge, or one could just be shut down anyway. I doubt a merger would make sense in this economy though.