Six months ago, in the Q3 earnings call for American Airlines, CEO Tom Horton responded to a question by TheStreet.com's Tom Reed about the possibility of "further consolidation" in the industry:

"Does that include you?" asked Reed.

"Yeah, it could," Horton replied.

Horton has more recently also said "For years I've said that I think consolidation has been — can be healthy and constructive for the U.S. airline industry." Yet he couched this comment within ...

I am hearing some rumblings tonight that an announcement is coming as early as Monday morning that US Airways and American Airlines may officially tie the knot. With news on Friday that American Airlines' labor unions have thrown their support behind a deal with US Airways, this should come as no surprise.

Although I repeat this is only rumor, it appears the combined airline will take the American Airlines name, maintain its headquarters in Fort Worth, and be run by US Airways CEO ...

Workers remove a sign with the old Continental Airlines logo to reveal the new United logo featuring Continental's blue globe. Image courtesy of Roger Yu at USA Today.

"FORTUNE -- United Continental Holdings is learning the hard way that it isn't wise to mess with Texas. The recently merged airline's decision to choose Chicago as its corporate headquarters over Continental's hometown of Houston appears to have resulted in a big loss ...

A "hub away from home" 

Airline deregulation may have spurred movement among legacy US carriers to drift towards the "hub-and-spoke" model. Interestingly, as part of that process, many of them pursued the idea of creating "off-shore" hubs that were not located on U.S. soil. Although smaller in size and scale than their US counter parts, many of them are in fact still alive and in full existence today.

For example, in the early 1990's, Northwest Airlines pioneered a ...

Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – AA 167 JFK-NRT 777 Purportedly First Class; Narita Express Part 3 – Visiting Tokyo in 1970: Hotel Okura Part 4 – NH 1161 HND-GMP 777 Economy: Wow!  So this is what they have back here? Part 5 – Hotel on a Hill: Grand Hyatt Seoul Part 6 – KE 85 ICN-JFK A380 Business Class Part 7 – Conclusion

For a Sunday to Friday trip, I was able accomplish a lot - meeting with over a dozen clients and investors in two different countries.  Having just come off ...

An Emirates Airbus A380 flies over the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. Image courtesy of Google.

"We can reel off a whole load of airlines that are teetering on the brink or are really gone. Roll this forward to Christmas, another eight or nine months, and we're going to see this industry in serious trouble."

-Tim Clark, President of Dubai-based Emirates Airline

It has not been a pretty few months for global airlines. ...