Continental still shopping for partners

Continental Airlines has publicly snubbed its potential business partner, United Airlines, as United’s profits have fallen $537 million into the red in the first quarter of this year. Talks of a full merger between Continental and United are all but over, but Continental is still shopping around for potential partners to corner markets with. Current swooners are American Airlines and British Airways.

An arrangement that would allow customers to book flights for any of the three airlines on any of their sites and combine frequent flyer points is in the pipes. By combining forces in such a way that falls short of a full merger could save all airlines troubles from unions and politicians while still sharing worldwide networks and resources. While combining forces is all well and good, there is the small matter of allegiances to existing airline alliances.

British Airways and American Airlines already belong to the oneworld alliance, while Continental is a member of SkyTeam. How the airlines handle their cooperative efforts relative to their own alliances remains to be seen.

www.continental.com