Delta And Northwest Airlines To Merge

[JerryCarr]

My friend, the airline analyst back in Atlanta, says that the merger is being rushed through despite not having all the labor issues (mainly pilot seniority, but also a couple others) worked out. The reason is that NW and Delta worry that a Democratic Administration in 2009 would be far more likely to block the merger on anti-trust or other grounds. The same guy also thinks it will be approved because, of all the major airlines, these two have the least overlap of routes and thus the combination will result in the fewest city pair monopolies. Meanwhile, leading up to the merger, both are cutting domestic capacity in an effort to be able to raise fares and get out of unprofitable markets. There are indications that such trend will continue or even accellerate post merger. No work on what they plan to do in the Hawaii market, other than touting the number of combined flights they currently have from here to the Mainland.

Cheers,
Jerry