Originally Posted by macflyer

They do have to ratify each pilot contract. Furthermore they also have to deal with the stock holders of NWA and Delta respectively as both of those are publicly owned and compass and comair are wholly owned airlines by those two. They would have to announce PUBLICLY their intention of any possible merger and have the stockholders informed.

Also, the fact that comair will be the only one benefiting from the merger is another reason to believe that this merger is nothing more then a rumor. Compass stands to loose a lot from a merger with a company in as bad of a shape as comair. For a merger to conclude both airlines have to benefit from the union, hence, agree to it. Otherwise the other option would be an "hostile takeover" and in this case there can not be an "hostile takeover" as neither of the companies are publicly traded.

Compass is what JetBlue was at their birth and no airline would ruin the chance of having 3 to 4 years of possible profits for the sake of another hurting airline.