The CEOs of United Airlines and US Airways met on Thursday, a person with knowledge of the meeting said, but there was no immediate announcement by either side on the status of efforts to combine the two carriers.
The New York Times reported on Thursday night that Glenn Tilton of UAL Corp’s United informed Doug Parker of US Airways Group Inc at the meeting that United had decided not to continue the merger talks.
The report, citing unidentified sources said to have direct knowledge of the situation, said the airlines were expected to announce yesterday that the discussions had ended.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation, also reported that Tilton told Parker that talks were suspended for now and that United is near an alliance agreement with Continental Airlines Inc.
Both United and US Airways declined to comment and would not even confirm that the meeting took place.
Tilton and Parker have been communicating about a potential deal for more than two months. Word of plans for their latest meeting drew extra interest following earlier reports that the talks appeared to have broken off.
No other details emerged immediately about the meeting, which took place in an undisclosed location. The person who told The Associated Press that the meeting took place was not authorized to discuss the talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Labor and financing issues have complicated the exploratory talks, which intensified last month following the agreement to combine Delta Air Lines Inc and Northwest Airlines Corp, and Continental’s decision not to pursue a merger with United.
But Continental left the door open to an alliance, in which the companies would work together in many ways but not merge their operations. It would provide a way for them to set pricing and schedules and increase revenue without the integration problems and antitrust scrutiny that come with formal consolidation.
Even if Tilton and Parker were to agree on a plan, it would still have to be approved by the companies’ boards of directors.
Financial pressures on the airlines are growing. Fitch Ratings pushed its credit rating on US Airways deeper into junk territory and cut its outlook on both carriers on Thursday because of concerns over rising fuel prices.
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