I believe if it would be UAL it would only be a piece of UAL and not the entire company. UAL and DAL would be too massive a merger. I am thinking that if the government would not let US and UAL then DAL would not be likely. NWA and DAL seems to be to big too. I would hate to think that some airline is going to get fed to the dogs for a merger.
DOJ source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...air/index.html

Has there ever been a functioning airline bought out by a group of airlines?