Returning the Ring

Barely two months after they announced their intention of merging, Continental and National airlines last week broke off their engagement. Neither line would spell out the reasons, but in a blast that he later retracted, National's outspoken Chairman George T. ("Ted") Baker, 61, intimated that it was all the fault of Civil Aeronautics Board Chairman Alan S. Boyd for trying to rush Continental and National into a loveless marriage. Snapped Baker: "Some of these 90-day wonders in Washington think mergers are the only way to save the airlines. I've been running an airline for 30 years and I haven't had to merge yet. And I don't have to now. I'm not going to be put under pressure by these people."

In the airline industry, however, a more generally accepted explanation of the breakup was that neither Baker nor Continental's flamboyant President Robert F. Six, 56, would agree to accept the other as top man in the merged company. Both lines are still apparently merger-conscious. Continental is rumored to be interested in Braniff. And if the CAB allows National's chief rival, Eastern, to carry out its proposed merger with American, National's Baker may well be out wooing Atlanta's Delta Air Lines.

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