Around the Web: Continental To Join United, Star Alliance

There has been plenty of commentary since Continental announced it would tie-up with United and join the Star Alliance. Unfortunately, the news came out while I was away, so I didn't have the chance to write on this until now. After having the chance to peruse some of the posts written by other bloggers, I thought I'd point you in the direction of some good reads today.

Of course, it's best to start with the press release put out announcing the partnership. There's plenty of information in there to get you the basic info on how this is more than just a codeshare and frequent flier tie-up. Once you finish with that, head on over to PlaneBuzz to get Holly Hegeman's first take on some of those main points.

One thing that Holly calls out is that Continental will enter a joint venture with Lufthansa, United, and Air Canada for transatlantic travel. Joint ventures for Latin and Asia travel will follow assuming they can get governmental approval. Joe Sharkey argues that we need to think long and hard about the increased use of anti-trust immunity.

Holly also mentions the possibilities for US Airways in all of this. The airline confirms that its status is not changing, but it's interesting to think about what possibilities may be out there. Ben Mutzabaugh at Today in the Sky has some info on that.

Personally I have to wonder if US Airways might consider linking up with American. Now that CO/UA and DL/NW are paired up, that doesn't leave AA anything else, and it would help strengthen AA in the West. But hey, that's just irresponsible speculation. Some people think that this is bad news for American, as you might imagine, but others have a different take, as Terry Maxon presents in the Airline Biz blog.

And lastly, take a look at Holly's follow-up post looking at the IT angle here. This could get very interesting.

I'm sure I'll have plenty more to talk about as the details develop.