US Air/United merger talks dead...for now

Who knows if there will be another major airline merger in 2010? In general, mergers lead to higher fares and less competition, so I guess we should all breathe a sigh of relief. Continental seems to be uninterested in the whole merger game, even though the airline just announced it lost $146 million in the first quarter. That's even worse than its performance in the first quarter of 2009, when it lost $136 million. So even with all those despised new fees, less capacity, and higher fares, airlines are still losing gobs of money. Some valuable further insight for those interested in this article by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Linda Lloyd.