8 replies to this topic

[Stevphfeniey]

While sitting around being bored in my house with an illness, i began to become curious about the possibility of mergers in AE. The problem is, how would it work? So i decided to let my fellow airline mogols provide their answers!

[sviridovt]

that would be cool and its the feature that I always wanted, it used to be in the game but then they removed it as there were cheaters

[Stevphfeniey]

True, but what if we had a sort of regulatory board made up of admin type people to approve said mergers?

[un1]

Was implemented before, completely killed the game. Probably wont be implemented again.

[Maestro69]

The only way i see this working would be that Airline A bought out Airline B but both airlines would still be operated by both players and run individual yet be part of the same airline.

However, it would be too complex to implement and hard to manage, especially when the bigger airlines with plenty of cash could just buy everyone out and just kill the competition.

Rather not introduce mergers for the sake of the game.

[Modesto]

I think it would be cool, and it could be monitored by a board just like oktoberfest mentioned. The board would see if the merger is acceptable; if it is not a hostile take over; if it doesn't diminish competition or give the airline too much power over routes in common. Some things that I would like to know are: Would the airlines actually merge or would it be just me taking control over the account of the other player? Can I keep both brand name? Will I have all the rights of having hubs and create terminals in both airline countries if the airlines are incorporated in different countries? How are the profits split if I can keep each airline with its own identity? If I have the option to merge the two airlines can I re-brand my name. If the airlines are from different alliances in which alliance would the new airline be?

[ChemicalReaper]

Modesto has brought up some interesting points.

What if mergers were not 'hostile takeovers' to take over rival airlines?

How about this: small airlines can offer themselves to be 'merged' with a larger airline. The large airline gets a small percent of the profits (say, 10-15%). In return, the smaller airline gets access to the larger company's open slots/terminals. The companies remain completely separate, run by their respective creators. The only thing is, say, that the smaller airline now displays the logo (or name, if there is no logo) of the 'parent' company.

The smaller airline can opt out of the merger at any time, the larger airline cannot. (They're not really losing anything and they probably have more than enough money to keep several slots free for the subsidiary airline.)

And the large airline can apportion some of its planes to be used by the smaller airline. so, say I have a 777-200 with 140 available flight hours; I can give up, for example, 70 flight hours. The smaller airline gets to utilize the plane for those 70 hours but doesn't have to pay any upkeep or leasing costs for the plane -- this gives them a really good chance to have larger profit margins.

Just my 2 cents.

[Stevphfeniey]

Well then if a smaller airline used the bigger airline's aircraft, then wouldnt that be like a code share? I was thinking if Airline A were to merge with Airline B, the board would look at the potential for total domination of a market (like if all the airlines in the northeast US merged and made it so that no other airline could compete in that market, the board would prevent that). Also I was thinking that if two airlines merged, one person would take control of the merged airlines and the other would get a cash bonus of x amount of dollars to start another airline.

[Kirkland]

This sounds nice. I totally agree with the board. I have a very annoying airline in AE2 which is useless and I just want to merge with the bigger airline. However , I believe that in the real world when they merge all the new money goes into the new airline. I love the board idea , it makes lots of sense. If two airlines dominated Asia and merged , then who else could make profit from Asia? I LOVE THIS IDEA!