CHICAGO — US Airways is no longer interested in merging with United Airlines, and it wants the world to know.
In a highly unusual move, US Airways announced Thursday that its board had decided to end talks with Chicago-based United.
The statement by Doug Parker, US Airways’ chairman and chief executive, signaled the anger and frustration that executives of the Phoenix- based carrier felt when United put their discussions on hold last week, days ahead of a planned merger announcement, to focus on a potential deal with Continental Airlines, say people close to the carrier.
“I am sure some ‘industry experts’ will suggest that US Airways will be strategically harmed if United now chooses to merge with Continental,” Parker said in a letter Thursday to US Airways employees. “They will be wrong. . . . Should our competitors choose to merge and help create a more stable airline industry, our independent airline will only become stronger.”
The rupture between United and US Airways doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t return to the negotiating table at some point, sources said.
But the announcement Thursday positions US Airways, the nation’s sixth-largest carrier, as a potential “wild card” if other U.S. carriers such as American Airlines, AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines decide to explore their own dealmaking possibilities, sources said.
The schism likely increases the pressure on United CEO Glenn Tilton to wrap up a deal with Continental. United has explored a Continental merger several times during Tilton’s nearly seven-year tenure.
That is because United and US Airways were close to completing a deal to create the nation’s second-largest merger when news of the talks leaked April 7 to The New York Times, say people with direct knowledge of the discussions.
Talks had progressed much further than in 2008, the last time United and US Airways had mulled a tie-up. The carriers were discussing the timing of their merger announcement, sources told the Chicago Tribune.
Continental Airlines, which learned of the discussions through media reports, had been hesitant to get drawn into potentially distracting merger discussions, preferring instead to focus on the joint ventures it was forming to share flying with United over the Atlantic and the Pacific.
But not wanting to be left a distant fourth in a rapidly consolidating industry, Continental decided last week to resume talks with United that it had abandoned in April 2008.
