How about American being dominated by British Airways and Qantas?

It’s no secret that American’s in a bad way – they’re going to be knocked down from King of the Hill to #3 in short order. They’re out of cash. Their fleet is old. Their route structure needs amping up. They don’t service Oceania anymore. They’re very weak across the Pacific. They’re weak to Europe in comparison to Delta or United’s structure.

What to do? Especially when Lufty snaps up Doug Parker’s little project?

Let someone else drive.

Let’s jump from airplane surprise to airline shocker –

USAirways will sell itself to Lufthansa.

This makes perfect sense. USAirways cannot continue to thrive where they are virtually shut out by Delta, United and American. They don’t have the hub and route structure necessary, they have almost no funding for expansion or new equipment and .. if they have to file again, this third time won’t be the charm.

Virgin America has already demonstrated exactly how to handle the foreign ownership restrictions that would limit any such transaction. No wheels to re-invent.

Lufthansa has already acquired and dramatically improved several airlines in Europe – Swiss, Austrian, SNBrussels, and seems to have a lock on SAS. But, they have nothing but O&D in the biggest airline passenger treasure chest of all – North America.

Lufthansa has the ability to inject the cash, provide the extraordinary management, the IT capacity, the route planning, and to provide appropriate aircraft to make USAirways a true competitor to the other Legacy majors in North America. With that, Lufty will be able to compete directly with its Star Alliance partners in North America, and with Delta and American.

Doug Parker? Lufthansa has your Golden Ticket.

Following my prediction that United (new) will be the King of the Hill once they get their operations consolidated, it’s time to drop a big ol’ bomb on the conversation.

Delta is going to buy all 88 of AirTran’s Boeing 717 fleet, and use them to replace MD-80 series aircraft, as well as some of legacy Northwest’s older A320s.

Delta has been in the used market, snapping up every MD-90 they can find. The MD-80s have Flintstone era technology, and suck down gas like my old ’73 Chrysler Imperial did. The A320s are NOT designed for constant rebuild and rehab as are Boeing ships, and Delta has already begun retiring some of the older A320s.

There isn’t a single iota of possibility that Southwest will hang onto those 717s for a moment longer than is necessary. Qantas Air Link is unlikely to buy them. TWA is gone. Midwest Airlines is gone. JetStar already ditched all of theirs. Who’s going to take on a completely new aircraft type that has already been discontinued?

Delta’s already warming up the checkbook. You can count on that.

I have a few prognostications that I have pulled from the vapor of various stories and threads I’ve been reading.

To make it an easier read, I’ll just do one a day.

To start, I’ll do my (former) hometown airline, UCon (now NuCon, or United as it is more commonly known).

United (combined) has already begun to re-gauge several routes and their two east coast hubs – EWR and IAD. A whole lot of big legacy UA metal is moving up to EWR and a whole bunch of CO’s snappy little 75M are going to be hauling the political worker bees across the pond on legacy UA’s routes from IAD.

This makes a whale of a lot of sense.

Rumor has it that a few of legacy UA’s 744s are going to be running from IAH – NRT, FRA, LIM, LHR – the demand is there, and UCon hasn’t had the metal to upgauge.

United is making a push at NRT and flogging the regulatory authorities hard on Tokyo Haneda, now that Delta has drawn down service there.

Here comes my prediction – United is going to be a money machine. They will have the ONLY truly global airline – something that eluded even Pan Am in their heyday. Delta has very little to Latin America, in which United is immensely strong. United’s partnership with Lufthansa’s constellation of carriers will produce enormous revenue generation, as will Lufty and United’s transpacific agreements with ANA. This is basically a kick in the groin to JAL, who is already on the ropes.

The new United, as my buddy Gailen David today noted, seems to be choosing most of legacy Continental’s operating standards going forward – which is a very good thing. With an advancing reputation for service, the right ship on the right route, and the sole opportunity for a traveler anywhere to stay online everywhere – United is going to be the next King of the Jungle.