The Chicago Tribune carried a piece today speculating about equity investors for United’s exit from bankruptcy. Will they go for just a government loan? Will they get outside financing? Will it come from Lufthansa? Will any new investors demand a new management team? The piece is long on speculation but offers little prediction.

One curious thing is the last line of the article, considering a Lufthansa equity stake in United:

having another airline as a shareholder would be a first for United, although one that might be a lot less wrenching than other alternatives.

Surely that can’t be true. I seem to recall National Air Transport owning part of United’s corporate predecessor in the early 1930s. And I also recall some equity ownership on the part of Western Air Lines when United and Western introduced the very first codeshare (Los Angeles-Salt Lake City-Chicago). I’ll have to go digging on this one, because my mind has really been spurred over this.