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During the recent economical turmoil that has seen widespread changes across the globe, many industries have undergone significant changes, perhaps none more so than the airborne travel industry. There have been many shifts and changes amongst airline companies including the recent absorption of the American company Continental Airlines by its fellow American competitor, United Airlines.

The company was formerly a major airline in the United States, and its legacy continues to form an important part of the business structure of United Airlines. The merge of the two companies was announced on the 3rd of May in 2010 when the airline confirmed that there would be a large scale swap of stock that would take place on the first of October of the same year. The merge was undertaken successfully, and Continental now operates alongside United Airlines as one single company that trades under the name of United Continental Holdings Inc.

The period of merging the two companies into one went on for some time and for a while, it was necessary to continue running operations separately under the control of a combined leadership venture. This was conducted by the newly formed parent company from its new headquarters in Chicago.

Both companies have clearly benefited from the merger transaction, since its entire worth is estimated to be in the region of 3.2 billion US dollars. The process was long and laborious, but was eventually finalised on the 30th of November in 2011 when the company was issued with a single operating certificate.

As a consequence of all of this, United and Continental are now contested to be one single airline by the FAA with all of the merged companies’ pilots using the call sign of ‘United’ for air traffic control. Although the flight crews and business administration are now officially running as one united company, there are still temporary separations between the reservation systems and ground operations which are expected to become consolidated in the first quarter of 2012.

Now that the two companies have united under the same banner, it is expected that a focus on destination expansion and maximisation of aircraft fleet will occur. If so, the newly formed company will be able to offer passengers extensive travel routes across the globe for international passengers, as well as domestic flight routes for all American passengers to destinations spread across all of the United States.