Although it’s still pretty unlikely, United would consider dropping out of the Star Alliance if it was necessary to complete a merger, according to this article.  United also would consider withdrawing from the Star Alliance, the
global marketing consortium it co-founded, if needed to close a deal.
"You can assume that absolutely everything goes into the mix [...]

Two quick notable route cancellations:
Air New Zealand is dropping its thrice weekly service between Nadi, Fiji, and Los Angeles in April so it can use aircraft on more profitable routes.  Codeshare partner Air Pacific will pick up 2 of those frequencies, bringing their number of weekly flights to 6.  Air Pacific isn’t as comfortable as [...]

United has canceled more than 1,100 flights since December 23rd, and there’s a bit of a dispute as to why.  The airline says that weather has been the primary cause of the wave of cancellations (which would make sense given the beating the midwest has taken, but AA has canceled far fewer at their Chicago [...]

I’ve seen this story a number of places, generally with a headline that suggests a near collision (not true):
A Midwest Airlines regional jet and a United Express aircraft got too close to each other after an air traffic controller lost track of the United plane.  Aircraft should remain 5 miles apart horizontally and 1000 feet [...]

You’ve no doubt read about the (possible) merger talks between United and Delta.  Yes, there are synergies in their route structures — it would create an airline giant with a massive global footprint.  But let’s get real.  Airline mergers have not failed because of route overlap.  They fail because of workforces (see: US Airways/America West); [...]

An odd one:  During some congressional testimony yesterday, witnesses discussed an incident in 2004 where both the pilot and the first officer of a red-eye flight from Denver to Baltimore fell asleep 45 minutes before landing.  The pilot was flying his third overnight in a row.
They were awakened by "frantic" calls from air traffic control [...]

Quick travel tip for you:  Do not harass your flight attendant when you go to Dubai.  A Russian doctor will be deported from Dubai after he was found guilty of molesting an Azerbaijani flight attendant on a trip from Moscow to Dubai.  He reportedly grabbed the woman, then offered to pay her to have sex [...]

You’re not the only one who has sat through long delays flying into Chicago:  The Chicago Bears sat and waited for 5 hours in San Diego when their United Airlines charter faced a mechanical problem.  After a while a new plane was flown down from LAX.  See, it’s not just you who can’t get back [...]

Good news if you’re a United flyer and you’ve had enough of filthy planes:  The airline said that it’s going to use part of its capital improvement budget to "deep clean" their aircraft more frequently.  They can spin that how they want, but that must mean their planes get extremely dirty.  And that means you’ve [...]

Two odd incidents in the past week where stuff has fallen off a plane into people’s yards:
A 2 foot piece of metal from a Northwest DC-9 fell into a family’s yard in Wisconsin last week.  No one was injured.  Said the home’s owner: "I was coming out with the
laundry basket to hang my laundry, and [...]