malgudi

I don't think you understand how things work in India

HNLbasedFlyer

Should (or could they) UA buy JetBlue, Alaska, Hawaiian, etc - might make for an interesting debate - Air India, not so much.

Often1

And worse than the EU as well.

AI's largest challenge is the government of India. Absent the resignation of every member of the Indian Civil Service, AI is not worth accepting for $0.

uastarflyer

That bowing Raja dude would be an upgrade over the clip art globe. A tandoori station in all the Clubs would be cool.

The actual operations and assets? Yikes H No.

chriskuo

The airlines are going to be bailed out by the US government. They don’t need to bail out the Indian government too.

worldwidedreamer

If you’ve ever done business in India, I recommend the movie “Outsourced.”

As for the posters who recommend outsourcing Indian employees with US employees in India...roftl

cfischer

Air India is a complete mess, why would UA have any interest here? If they go under perhaps buy a couple mildly-used 787s ... that's IMO about it.

mr8

I don’t really see the point of this.

If UA were to buy a foreign carrier, wouldn’t it be more logical to acquire an airline with a decent hub and network? Something like Lufthansa or ANA would probably make more sense than Air India since that would give them access to serve all of Europe or all of Asia.

I doubt any of this would ever happen since UA has been making cuts to its overseas hubs in favor of direct flights.

spartacusmcfly

That's the whole point. They have gone under! AI can't even pay its fuel bills. Fuel is directly paid by the Indian treasury!

1st auction - zero bidders
2nd auction sweetened the pot by lndia agreeing to fund 1/2 the debt and allowing some layoffs - also zero bidders

The ultimate offer will be, zero debt, zero people, assets for free, route exclusivity for 10 years, all in exchange for a profit sharing agreement.

UA is one of 5 airlines globally that could successfully implement such an integration. From that list of five, if you remove the Chinese (obvious reasons), Muslims (obvious reasons) and British (former Indian colonizer), that only leaves UA & DL. AA is out because of its massive debt load load.

Remember, in the toughest of times, great companies acquire crown jewels that pay dividends for decades. During the financial crisis, Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia. BofA acquired Merrill Lynch. Motivated sellers and uniquely qualified buyers, often result in '1+1=3' type outcomes...

What's funny is, many on this thread feel UA could pull of the integration, but won't be allowed to. My point is, if allowed to, should they do it? I still feel they should!

jsloan

United is not a great company, and AI is not a crown jewel.

No. UA is facing a significant free cash flow situation. Their cash reserves are dwindling. Even if they could acquire AI and take on no debt to do so, you’re acquiring an unprofitable asset that will require a major cash infusion, while you’re simultaneously asking your own employees to take unpaid leave and discussing the possibility of furloughs. Something like this would create labor unrest — again — at little or no gain. There’s zero upside here.

spartacusmcfly

You could replace UA in the above paragraph with Wells or BofA back in 2009. How do those deals look today

emcampbe

having lived as an ex-pat in India, can make many comments about the environment, etc. I’d like to focus on UAs supposed ‘knowledge of the India market’. How much knowledge do you think they really have? Flying one flight a day to each of the two biggest cities in the country hardly gives them expertise in the market. Somehow, not sure that ‘knowledge’ translates all that well to the overall Indian market. US to India market, sure, maybe. But given the diversity of that market, the competition with carriers of all types (yes, no more Jet, but lots of competition with Vistara, Indigo, SpiceJet, Go Air, AirAsia India, etc.), and the types of markets served, I highly doubt UA has much knowledge of the Indian market. Flying only from the US to BOM/DEL gives you much different knowledge than you need to have a network where you need to fly to dozens upon dozens of smaller cities like TRZ, PNY, etc. There’s probably International airlines with a lot more knowledge of the Indian market than UA - the ME3, SQ (which owns part of Vistara) come to mind, or even LH, which at least flies to several Indian cities. UA, not so much.

PaulMCO

I like pasta better than Chicken Tika. Maybe UA should purchase Alitalia??

narvik

Maybe UA should purchase Italy?

spartacusmcfly

AI is only an international carrier, they don't fly within India. They fly to places like HKG, SIN, NRT, PEK, SHA, LHR, CDG, SFO, JFK, etc... Do we think UA knows a bit about those locations