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Why UA should buy Air India right now!

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Old Mar 15, 2020, 10:00 am
  #46  
 
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Originally Posted by 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
Enough to know that there is close to zero demand right now to all of them, even without govt restrictions.
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Old Mar 15, 2020, 10:14 am
  #47  
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Originally Posted by spartacusmcfly
AI is only an international carrier, they don't fly within India.
Air India's Domestic Route Map
Wikipedia's list of Air India Destinations
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Old Mar 15, 2020, 10:44 am
  #48  
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Originally Posted by fastair
Enough to know that there is close to zero demand right now to all of them, even without govt restrictions.
Yes, perfect! Deal gets done during this tumultuous environment, and receives govt approvals in a few quarters when things are returning to normal!

Originally Posted by jsloan
Air India's Domestic Route Map
Wikipedia's list of Air India Destinations
Nope. The domestic route network is Indian Airlines, which was nationalized and placed under the AI name. It's a separate piece that has effectively been euthanized by the govt. Their domestic market share is less than 5%.

AI flies to 44 international cities, of which united flies to 1/2 of those. The remaining cities are places like Male, Kabul, Jeddha, etc. Some UA would keep, some they would toss.

Broader point is the 'spin globe, point finger' airline that serves 200+ distinctions would now serve 222+ destinations. UA could easily integrate something like this...

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Mar 15, 2020 at 11:19 am Reason: Merged consecutive posts by same member; please use multi-quote
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Old Mar 15, 2020, 10:58 am
  #49  
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Is there even a single full-service airline in IN that makes any money? Even Vistara is not in the black.
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Old Mar 15, 2020, 11:07 am
  #50  
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Originally Posted by spartacusmcfly
UA could easily integrate something like this...
It took them, what, five or six years to integrate CO and UA. This is at least an order of magnitude more challenging.

You're talking about an airline that literally nobody wants, with customer satisfaction scores as bad as, or worse than, United's. An airline that managed to turn in a 62% on-time performance rating (vs. UA's much-derided 76.9% on 10x the number of flights). An airline with labor problems as bad as UA's used to be.

Meanwhile, UA is so cash-strapped that they're opening up new lines of credit and trying to borrow money from their customers through their schedule change policy. By the time any acquisition could go through, UA is likely to be in bankruptcy.
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Old Mar 15, 2020, 11:07 am
  #51  
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Originally Posted by TPJ
Is there even a single full-service airline in IN that makes any money? Even Vistara is not in the black.
Vistara is a peanut (3% market share). Indigo has roughly 50% marketshare and generates roughly $1 billion USD/yr in profit. Even more now that fuel cost is plummeting. One can make money in India. Especially with exclusivity on international routes, which would be part of the deal. UA is uniquely positioned to nail the integration!
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Old Mar 15, 2020, 11:09 am
  #52  
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Originally Posted by spartacusmcfly
UA is uniquely positioned to nail the integration!
No, they're not. UA brings nothing to the table that any other large airline couldn't bring.
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