United Continental 'hopeful' of reaching new labour agreements

United Continental Holdings stated it is "hopeful" the company will reach a new labour agreement with Continental Airlines flight attendants after a previous agreement was rejected, according to CEO Jeff Smisek (Bloomberg, 15-Dec-2010). Mr Smisek also stated advanced negotiations are under way with pilots from Continental and United Airlines with "significant progress" made in merging the two carriers. However, the merging of the carriers frequent flyer programmes is expected to take at least a year to complete.