un article interessant sur les avantages/inconvenients d'une fusion pour les passagers:
Mergers have advantages, disadvantages for fliers
By Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Saturday, February 9, 2008
On the other hand, they might enhance frequent-flier programs, ease runway congestion and boost connectivity to cities worldwide.
Aviation experts say that industry consolidation would create both drawbacks and benefits for travelers, no matter which carriers are involved.
"I expect in any merger that there will be some problems that impact consumers," said Dan Kasper, an airline consultant at the Cambridge, Mass., office of LECG. "But I think there are certainly some potential benefits out there as well."
A high-profile merger isn't expected to have much impact in Denver - one of the few cities in the country with three airlines aggressively competing against each other.
United, which is looking to partner with another carrier, likely wouldn't give up its Denver hub, observers say. And Frontier Airlines or Southwest Airlines could quickly fill the gap if it did drop some service.
In general, though, consolidation will allow airlines to raise airfares nationwide as they remove planes and seats from the market to reduce capacity.
As part of that downsizing, carriers involved in a merger would seek to abandon overlapping and less-profitable routes, which could lead to a reduction in service to small- and mid- size cities. Some larger markets could lose flights as well, particularly if they're served by the two carriers that are merging.
Then there is the sheer difficulty involved in merging airlines, a complex task that involves melding disparate reservations and computer systems, union contracts and airplane fleets. Most carriers that have merged haven't handled the integration well, creating huge customer-service headaches.
"Most people read about delays and congestion today and think we've already hit the floor on customer service," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, a lobbying group based in Pennsylvania. "But customer service is going into the basement" if mergers take place.
Not everyone sees it that way, of course. Airlines tout numerous benefits to mergers, saying they'll lead to larger route networks, stronger frequent-flier programs and seamless travel to more destinations. Most important, they say, consolidation will create huge savings that will keep costs down.
No matter what happens, don't expect any changes overnight.
"If a merger is announced announced on Monday, don't expect a thing to change on Tuesday," said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst at Forrester Research in San Francisco. "It can take anywhere from six months to a year for the first pieces of a merger to really hit the traveler."
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