Delta, Northwest May Unveil Merger As Early As Tuesday

Wall Street Journal:

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. have spent the last week readying their long-delayed merger announcement, with the aim of unveiling it as early as Tuesday, said people familiar with the matter.

They could go ahead without the support of Delta's 6,000 pilots. Delta and its pilots remained in talks over the weekend on a new post-merger contract that would cover that group only, leaving negotiations with Northwest's 5,000 pilots for a later day, these people said.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

It is truly a foregone conclusion­... only a matter of time... before due to fuel costs ALL of the American airline companies will be forced to merge, and then to seek government funding, to form ...

Aeroflot.

[JScott]

Future movie fans will have no clue as to what Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest' means...
'North by Delta' doesn't seem to cut it.

[wm1066]

I never took that to mean Northwest Airlines. Back then it was called Northwest Orient.
I can still remember the jingle" Northwest Orient, The world is going our way," And it was sung in a sing songy way.
"North by northwest" is a heading, like south by southwest, or east by northeast.

[MACinCHI]

Fantastic. Not that Northwest's reputation has been the best, but if this merger goes through, it's going to be brought down to the level of Delta? Yech! I had never known bad service until I flew Delta. Rude, rude, rude.

Maybe if the execs at the airlines would admit that they need to raise fares to compensate for rising fuel prices, maybe their airlines wouldn't be in the shape they are. They might also get better reviews from the flying public if they actually catered to their customer instead of the stock investor.

[Novista]

Economies of scale: half the employes and twice the management.

[MajorKong]

As an airline pilot, your entire career is based on seniority. What equipment you fly, when you upgrade to Captain, your schedule, even when you go on vacation is all determined by your seniority number.

That's why airline mergers get so ugly from the pilot's perspective. It's nearly impossible to merge two seniority lists without somebody feeling like they got a raw deal.

[DC8P4DCEFE]

When I have to fly commercial I refuse to fly on a US carrier.

[wm1066]

I can only afford "Jefferson Airplane"