Originally Posted by CO 1E

I agree. At the very least, IAD would have to remain some sort of "heavy focus city" for international flights. As it stands, UA actually is not growing international flights to the extent it could and foreign carriers are moving in to pick up the slack.

Qatar now has two flights a day to DOH that capitalize on premium traffic to the middle east and South Asia. I think EK is either moving in or is considering it (not certain about which). As previously stated, BA has three flights a day to LHR (two in low season), and VS has two flights a day in the high season (and one in the low season). UA has three per day to LHR. NH and UA each have one flight per day to NRT. UA has the much discussed PEK flight. AF has two flights to CDG (and three in the high season, I believe), while UA has one. OS has a daily VIE flight. UA has daily FCO, BRU, and ZRH flights. UA has thrice-daily service to FRA, plus one daily LH flight. UA and KL have one flight per day to AMS. KE has a flight to ICN. Aeroflot has once-weekly service to SVO. Aer Lingus has daily service to DUB; Saudi Arabian has a flight to Riyadh; South African has a flight to Johannesburg; and Iberia has a flight to MAD. Even Ethiopian has service to Addis Abbaba.

A merged CO/UA would be beyond foolish (indeed, insane) to eliminate most of the UA international destinations in favor of EWR and cede the traffic to foreign carriers, who would eagerly swoop in to fill the void.

Originally Posted by sbm12

LON, FRA, MUC and CDG all have a carrier with real lie-flat. Any others that CO competes with? CO serves ~25 destinations in Europe. Even if there are 10 that have a non-stop with a real lie-flat there are ~15 that don't, and CO can compete just fine with those. And I think that CO competes OK with the lie-flat crowd, too.