Goodbye Continental, Hello Higher Airfares

May 5, 2010 — -- These days, no carrier seems to last too long as "The World's Biggest Airline."

A couple of years ago, American Airlines claimed the honor, until Delta wrested away the crown after its merger with Northwest. Ultimately, though, Delta had to defer to United.

The new mega-United that is, now that it's hooked up with Continental.

So is it goodbye forever to Continental? Well…kind of, although the brand will not completely disappear, unlike say, those ghostly smiles from PSA planes past (yes, Pacific Southwest used to paint "smiles" on its aircraft, just under the nose).

No, Continental will live on in its colors, livery and logo (that stylized globe) which will adorn the new airline's planes even though the name will be "United." I'm sure we'll get used to it.

And now that I've dispatched with the "style" portion of this column -- what about airfare prices?

Well, it's not looking too good for air-travel cheapskates -- and in the short term, this has nothing to do with the mega-merger, which won't be complete for at least a year (if at all, depending on looming anti-trust scrutiny).

For more air travel news and insights visit Rick's blog at: http://farecompare.com

In a celebratory conference call with media and financial analysts earlier this week, United CEO Glenn Tilton and Continental CEO Jeff Smisek (the latter will run the new United) said merging their companies was "profoundly pro-competitive." They said airfare increases were not built into their estimates of the "benefits of synergies."