Following the May 3, 2010 announcement of Continental and United airlines of a merger agreement, OAG Aviation Consulting Services has compiled the following information and analysis of a potential partnership between the two airlines:

  * Worldwide & U.S. Domestic Market Share and Rankings - Based on both Available Seat Miles (ASMs) and Seat Capacity
  * Market share at Top Hubs
  * Regional Partner Summary
  * Fleet Overview

The findings show that the proposed merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines would create the largest airline in the world by many measures – airline revenue, available seat miles (ASMs) and revenue passenger miles (RPMs) – both within the United States and worldwide. Delta Air Lines today is the leader in all of those categories.

The new United Airlines will be second to Delta in terms of worldwide seat departures, and third behind Delta and Southwest Airlines in domestic seats. American Airlines will move from second to third in U.S. and worldwide ASMs, and from third to fourth in total and domestic seats.

“Merger assessments usually focus on shares of the partners in a variety of differently-defined markets, ranging from a single airport pair, to dominance of one or more hubs to a set of traffic flows through hubs,” said Sanford (Sandy) Rederer, Senior Consultant, OAG Aviation Consulting Services. “This information is of great interest to the communities whose air service will be impacted by the merger.”

OAG’s comprehensive databases, which summarize market shares for the two airlines (including United Express, Continental Express and Continental Connection operations) at airports where their operations are prominent, show a combined 70% share of seat departures at Cleveland and 87% at Houston Intercontinental Airport (or 68% including Houston Hobby Airport as well as Intercontinental). Shares are 37% at Chicago (48% for O’Hare alone) and 26% for New York (but 73% for Newark, alone).

By way of comparison, American has a 74% seat departure share in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (this includes Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International; 86% at DFW Airport alone); Delta has a 76% seat share at Atlanta and higher-than-80% seat shares at Detroit and Minneapolis. US Airways operates almost 90% of Charlotte seats.