The Continental Airlines - Essay Example

Last May and October, 2010, UAL created several mergers involving Continental Express JT Merger Sub Inc., and Continental, with Continental surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of UAL Corporation. At the last part of the Merger, the UAL became the parent company of both Continental and United and this was followed by change of name to United Continental Holding., Inc, its present name (Reuters, 2011b) UAL market share cannot be clearly determined but based on total of its ranking from the industry players in terms of sales for the past twelve trailing months, it shares a big part of the market.

See Appendix C. UAL is part of those top ten in terms of revenues in the arilines industry. With almost 6,000 daily a day to more than 375 US domestic and international destinations from its hubs from various international airports that can be found in Guam, Denver, Houston Bush, Cleveland Hopkins, Los Angeles International Airport, San Francisco and Washington Dulles, one could imagine just how big the company is in reach of customers and related its market share. Its geographical locations can be determined by the extent of its domestic and international operations which can be described to be global.

Continental flight destinations are throughout the US, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific Regions. Its major competitors are Delta Air, Southwest Airlines, and US Airways. A and Nippon Airways (Reuters, 2011d). Although, this paper originally seeks to evaluate the Continental Airlines’ financial condition and strategies, analysis and discussion would now be on UAL or the holding company of which Continental and United are subsidiaries by looking at the how the company (UAL) has maximized value for its shareholders.

The best way to determine whether the company has maximized value to its shareholders it estimates the company’s value in relation to what the market actually reflects. Valuation would be