crewdawg52

Reuters
Delta, Northwest in merger talks: report
Wednesday January 10, 2:45 pm ET


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. (Other OTCALRQ.PK - News) and Northwest Airlines Corp. (Other OTC:NWACQ.PK - News) are in talks on a possible merger, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper said representatives of the two carriers, which are No. 3 and No. 5 in the United States respectively, have met regularly for weeks discussing a possible link-up after they both emerge from bankruptcy.

The two airlines have been restructuring in bankruptcy since September 2005. A Northwest spokesman declined to comment. Delta officials were not immediately available for comment.


No surprise there. Been in the works for a long time now I'd safely bet. Code sharing, same day bankruptcy filing, Delta doing everything it can to keep from being bought by USA.

skywriter

What about U.S air uping there bid 2 bil more.

CVG767A

Most of us at Delta are still wanting to emerge from BK this spring as an independent airline. Parker's raised bid is going to be more difficult for the creditors to resist. He needs two thirds of the unsecured creditors (measured in $) to go along with him. Even with the raised offer, I don't think he has that. I hope I'm right.

What his bid will do is prematurely force us into a deal with someone else. I think this NWA thing has been in the works since we both filed for BK. It seems as if both management teams have been using the bankruptcy laws to shape these airlines to fit together, both in terms of assets and labor groups.

The DALPA contract and it's code share provisions will complicate Parker's plan, but (as was mentioned) DALPA already has a code share agreement with NWA (and CAL).

Had Grinstein proposed a NWA merger out of the blue, the Delta employees would have been up in arms. In this context, however, most of them will probably go along peacefully.

astrojet

also the most likely scenario would be that DAL management would remain , while the current skeleton team up in minneapolis would receive their big bonuses and move on to the next chop job...initially there would be a hi ratio of fleet types but eventually with the fleet renewal programs it would be simplified, unless a freight arrangement is made with fed-ex, the big looser is mem...cvg will also downscale with time like stl did.

CVG767A

I think CVG's days as a hub are drawing to a close, regardless of whether we merge or emerge solo.

NGINEWHOISWHAT

I'm just curious how a DAL/NWA merger would play out. CVG is already "right-sized" with the CRJ's and it's too close to DTW which is a money maker. Keep Memphis to ease ATL's congestion and expand West Coast Ops.

AMR will pick up the DOJ mandated remnants of the merged airlines. What I'm wondering is who will CAL pair up with and who is going to pick up B6. I'm trying to be level headed, Velopicide, so don't get made at me. I'm thinking that was Neilman's purpose all along. They would be a good partner for someone. Southwest would have picked them up, but B6 would not have made nearly as much money without those cheap, government subsidized Airbuses and Southwest is NOT about to change their original recipe.

These are interesting times, and once again we are merely pawns.

Tom