United and Continental, which hope to get the approvals and complete their merger later this year, hired Bain & Company to consult on the integration effort, according to Reuters.
Bain & Company, which has experience in airline integration efforts, notes that only 30% of large mergers create ample shareholder value while 50% "destroy value."
Meanwhile, the current leadership of the merged airlines is working on assembling a management team, presumably primarily from their current staffs.
Continental chairman and CEO Jeff Smisek will be CEO of the new United Airlines and United chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton will be the nonexecutive chairman of the combined enterprise.