With United. So says the New York Times. If those two airlines merged, it would be an unholy mess. Lots of messy union integration issues. Major anti-trust issues in Washington, D.C. between United’s hub at IAD and US Airways “focus city” at DCA.
It’s also unclear where the primary European focus would be IAD, or PHL. Or both. The same apples for South American service — it’s not obvious if CLT or IAD would be the hub.
Very preliminary Charlotte impact if this happens: United is a strong transcon brand but very weak in the southeast, especially Florida. Their Caribbean presence is also weak. Right now, US Airways essentially must grow over CLT or PHL — DCA, leaving the slot swap aside, is capacity limited, and PHX is overrun by Southwest. A combined United/US Airways would have more growth possibilities. In a general sense, that’s not good for CLT. CLT would certainly remain as a hub, but it’s hard to argue that the European expansion possibilities are helped by this. There could be some gain in transcon service or flights to secondary Midwest and plains service though.
If this happens, the odds of Southwest Airlines coming to town goes way up.