Mergers, buying and selling

What a bad week - again. Layoffs and route cuts at American and Delta, a plea from US Airways. Some of it seems like a rerun, but this time there is something different. and it's not the repeated prediction/plea from the US Airways chief executive, Doug Parker, who again urged merger and consolidation throughout the industry. Parker has previously urged this course of consolidation, and went so far as to do one of the industry's few big mergers, the takeover of US Airways by Parker's America West.
But when you mention that, you pretty much have to mention the aborted merger of the old US Airways into United Airlines. Didn't happen (twice), ain't gonna happen. That's the difference: the other big voice for industry consolidation, United Airlines chief Glenn Tilton, has been quiet and his actions speak louder than words.
Tilton moved the other week toward making a major aircraft purchase, a multi-billion move that would effectively take United out of the running as a merger partner. (You don't buy a new fleet if you're going to merge because you have to know what kind of planes your merger partner flies.) Tilton may have other motives, including waving a really big pacifier before his unhappy pilots, promising them new planes if they'll just deal. But Tilton's big buy, even if you have some doubts about how real it is, seems to be United's declaration of independence.
(Illustration from the Association of Flight Attendants, which has some strong feelings about mergers and consolidation.)