Very old article, but his points are still valid. There have been a few discussions of this on other threads, but let me summarize.

General consensus seems to be it would in fact be a great move for DAL...whether it would be good or bad for the current DAL pilot group is still very much debateable.

Almost all believe it is not in the immediate plans because of the following:
- Focus is on getting slot swap in New York...trying to get DOT/DOJ approval for that and a merger at the same time would be a big challenge.
- Just committed copious amounts of money to the JFK terminal.
- It would be expensive...AK is profitable and growing, and everyone in the industry would do all they could to make it cost DAL plenty.
- The Airline is getting many of the benefits of a merger through the code share (of course pilots only get a minimal indirect benefit of the extra feed allowing for more WB flying out of SEA and LAX..much rather be operating those codeshare flights, and getting the WB flying).

Some say DAL is slowly moving toward a merger:
- Codeshare language which incrementally makes it more and more expensive for AK to terminate the agreement
- syncing of computer systems for reservations and tix
- Moving AK into T-6 at LAX (which I believe DAL has partially funded??)

Other things to consider:
- American buys JB, DAL would probably make a play for AK.
- Any other carrier bids on AK, DAL would get in on that.
- Slot swap at LGA/DCA gets denied (again), DAL might need to consider moving on to building the West Coast to Asia.

Bottom Line: Don't look for anything to happen in the next few years absent a bold move from another carrier. Long term, likely merger but not certain.