CHICAGO (AP) -- United Airlines' stock plunged nearly 60 percent Thursday, a day after the world's second-largest carrier lost its request for government loan backing it said was needed to keep it out of bankruptcy.þþShares in United parent UAL Corp. fell $1.84, or 59 percent, to $1.28 in heavy early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.þþAnalysts said the rejection of United's request for $1.8 billion in federal loan guarantees all but ensures a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. It would be the largest bankruptcy in airline industry history.þþChief executive Glenn Tilton didn't comment on the likelihood of bankruptcy, assuring passengers and United's 83,000 employees Wednesday night that ``whatever course we chart, it should be emphatically clear that United will continue to fly.'' United had no further comment Thursday morning.þþBarring an unlikely turn of events, that course will almost certainly take it into federal bankruptcy court as soon as this week.þþ``We believe bankruptcy is inevitable,'' J.P. Morgan analyst Jamie Baker wrote in a note to investors Thursday.þþ``I can't imagine them avoiding it unless someone writes them a check for $2 billion,'' said Ray Neidl of Blaylock and Partners. þþ
Source: NY Times
