Hmmm,
I believe that Pres. Prater and his legal staff made a statement to the combined Atlas/Polar MEC that the Atlas/Polar merged model will mirror the Air Micronesia and Continental (two certificates - one pilot group) model. Not unexpected since many of the upper Atlas management that initiated the Atlas/Polar merger are from Continental and Eastern.
So I would say there is some basis to the merger already in place despite our resident experts opinions.