CO and UA have a total of 161 aircraft on firm order backlog (data from Ascend's fleet database). CO has 41 single-aisle aircraft on order--all 737NGs--and UA has 42 Airbus A319/A320s on order--consistent with their installed base of aircraft.
There is better commonality on wide-body aircraft as both airlines have 787s on order although UA has an order for 25 Airbus A350-900XWB.
CO tends to have a fleet dominance of single aisle aircraft (86% of their mainline fleet is made up of narrow-body aircraft with only 14% wide-bodies). However, 41% of their firm order book is comprised of twin aisle aircraft, a significant shift from their current fleet inventory. UA fleet orders, on the other hand, are basically an even split of single aisle and twin aisle aircraft (46% NB, 54% WB).
Is there a future scenario where CO becomes the domestic airline and UA becomes solely international as a merged entity?
Nice analysis. It would be interesting to see a discussion about route systems of the two airlines, how much overlap there is, and if any hubs would become redundant in a merged entity.
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