Delta-Alaska, Talking heads report...
 

Delta, Alaska Air to expand marketing alliance

Delta, Alaska Air to expand alliance; speculation Delta could seek to acquire Alaska Air

November 14, 2008: 01:31 PM EST
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Delta Air Lines Inc., which broadened its global reach with its purchase of Northwest Airlines, plans to expand a marketing alliance with Alaska Air Group Inc., a carrier that some industry observers have speculated Delta may have an interest in acquiring one day.
The marketing alliance expansion was scheduled to be announced Monday at a news conference at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where the chief executives of Atlanta-based Delta and Seattle-based Alaska Air will speak, according to an event advisory issued by the carriers.
Delta is the world's biggest carrier. Alaska Air operates Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, which together serve more than 90 cities through their network in Alaska, Hawaii, the continental U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Delta's existing alliance with Alaska Air was launched in 2004, and there has been a relationship of more than 20 years between Alaska, Horizon and Northwest. Currently, code-sharing by Delta, including Northwest, extends to more than 100 markets served by Alaska Air, including Horizon, and code-sharing by Alaska Air extends to more than 30 markets served by Delta. Currently, Delta frequent fliers can book award tickets on Alaska Air flights that carry the Delta code.
On Monday, Delta will announce enhancements to those agreements, including plans for new service that would be supported by their code-sharing partnership, Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.
Under code-sharing arrangements, one airline puts its name or code on a flight operated by the other, allowing it to sell tickets on the other's flights. The carriers, in turn, generally share that revenue. Code-sharing is considered a low-risk way for airlines to expand their networks without the added cost of more planes and employees.
Credit Suisse analyst Daniel McKenzie said in a research note in October that his firm has not ruled out the possibility of further merger and acquisition activity for Delta in the future. He said then that Alaska Air Group or New York-based JetBlue Airways Corp. "remain appealing targets, both with attractive assets and strategic positioning that would enable DAL/NWA to better compete with what we consider is an inevitable CAL/UAUA combination sometime down the road." Delta has not commented on the speculation.
Houston-based Continental Airlines Inc. and Chicago-based UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, were said to have had discussions earlier this year, but they never announced a combination. Continental later said it would join a marketing alliance made up of several carriers, including United.
Both Delta and Alaska Air are coming off losses in the third quarter. For the three months ended Sept. 30, Delta reported a net loss of $50 million, or 13 cents a share, compared to profit of $220 million, or 56 cents a share, a year earlier. For the July-September period, Alaska Air Group reported a net loss of $86.5 million, or $2.40 per share, compared with profit of $81.8 million, or $2.01 per share, during the same period last year.
In afternoon trading Friday, Delta shares fell 25 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $7.92, while Alaska Air Group shares fell 30 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $24.99.

Purchasing Alaska in order to bolster DL in SEA and LAX could be a good thing. The there is B6. But I think somehow they would have to give up too much in NYC to make that happen. I also don't see the DOJ letting the world's biggest carrier aquire an LCC...though it would do everyone a favor to elimiate the duplication of routes out JFK even if it eliminated competition on said routes. Time will tell.

This would be a great thing for the new Delta. The Alaska pilots would also get a lot out of a merger or acquisition. Hope it happens.

We would, would we?

The idea does not exactly excite me....

I'd rather see us start feeding SEA ourselves. We have over 800 airplanes in our fleet, and a bunch of additional DC9s in the desert. Isn't that enough to feed a hub?

You have to look at the money that will be lost competing with Alaska out of SEA. We have shown we will match or beat any set price out of our hubs, so it would be bloody. It may be cheaper to use that money to eliminate the competition by buying them and then have a monopoly. I am not saying I want this, just pointing out economics of it.

That's funny Alaska is probably worth more than what Delta paid for Northwest all though that is not saying much. Last quarter Alaska had 1.2 Billion in cash and short term investments. I wouldn't read to much into this announcement. American tried to buy alaska back in the 90's.

If the premise is that we're feeding our international service, then we're not really competing. A ticket from GEG to SEA might be less expensive on Alaska, but we'd be selling a ticket from GEG to PVG or NRT.

Don't know how it's been looked at since 9/11, but the NWA CEO (pre RA) supposedly said we had a standing offer to buy Alaska and had so for years. However, no price had ever been agreed to. Code share is perfect! Let's leave it at that, I'll bet no one on "our side" wants to do this again any time soon.:D

Ferd

Point taken. However DL has already failed a number of times with "organic" growth/feed at LAX. Not that LAX and SEA are totally the same, but you get the point. Having the local market at SEA through a purchase of AS with their infrastructure and knowledge of the market already in place makes int'l expansion as well as feeding the int'l flights easier. AS also has a decent share of the LA-Mexico market which Im sure DL would love to get their hands on as well.

I don't want to go through a seniority merger with Delta. Seattle is a desirable place to live. There are plenty of Delta guys who would like to get back here. Ugh.

Resistance is Futile!:D

I would think you would want to join a company that takes care of its employees and now controls most of the high revenue routes in the world.

Besides, we really don't want to go through another seniority merger either. If it happens, so be it. It does make a lot of sense, however. Adding the north-south to the east-west.

I think the most interesting aspect would be the effect on the regionals Horizon and SkyWest. Sure would be an interesting battle on the West Coast. :D

Since Delta's emergence from Ch.11, they have said several times that they want to become the #1 carrier in LAX and the West Coat. Alaska gives them that. No overlap and a excellent route structure on the west coast to feed Delta's international expansion.

hence the code share...

Code Share is just another way of outsourcing our jobs.

So stealing the pension of hard-working employees who put in 30 plus years of service is taking care of employees? That's exactly what Delta did under bankruptcy rules as recently as two years ago.

I'm sure it can be said Alaska doesn't take care of its employees either, especially after the imposed pay cuts their pilots suffered two years ago, but don't say that Delta takes care of its employees because they don't; they are no better or worse at that than any of their competitors.

ALK and DAL has been in the works for years.

I guess you guys will be able to smoke now....:)

So has AMR-ALK, CAL-ALK, NWA-ALK amongst many other combos. Don't think Delta's the only one interested but it sure helps when your numero uno.

Boys...Delta is now the largest airline in the world. There isn`t a chance that the Justice Department would approve the aquisition of Alaska.

Curious why the CEO of both airlines feel compelled to make a joint announcement over something as common place as code share. And the announcement is to be made in Seattle. Can anything be read into this choice? The plot thickens!

Just food for tought.. the VP of Ops for Alaska used to be a Delta Guy, I believe, and he was one of the guys the union actually liked... ;)

I'd bet DAL boys wouldn't want relative seniority with an ALK pilot :)

Why? Adding 1500 guys in wouldn't be THAT hard and with relative seniority you keep your own little status quo. Nobody moves way up, nobody moves way down. I grant you that adding 1500 737 guys and their jets would take a while to integrate but if I was a DAL competitor, I would be very afraid if that happened.

They will when UAL and CAL merge. We are just pawns in their game boys. :rolleyes:

Why not? Just fence everything bigger than a 737. It can be called "The Return of Robert's."



(Do I need to put TIC?)

Here,s an idea -how about getting the NWA integration completed first.Then you folks at DAL can play at Pinky and the Brain with plotting world takeover.:eek:

Hi!

NWA and DAL are done with their SLI.

8 Dec the arbitrators will announce the list.

cliff
YIP

Hi.

Where did you hear this? I thought they were still in L.A. with another session today.

read his whole post. One way or another is will be known by Dec eighth.

I realize it may be me, but I don't understand what you're saying. If there's some news on the SLI hearings outside the transcripts released yesterday, I, along with 12,000+ of my closest friends, would love to hear it. Non-cryptic post requested.

Simple words OK. I will try.
There is no new news. What he was saying is that the SLI is done one way or another by Dec 8th.
If or when there is a negotiated list, the membership will be notified expeditiously.

O.K. You're obviously better at interpreting his post than me.

I mistakenly thought when someone says "NWA and DAL are done with their SLI", that means the two sides were actually done with the SLI. Mea culpa.

Yes, I agree the two sides will be done presenting their case by Dec 8th.

Actually Jughead, the two sides will be done presenting their cases today. The arbitrators have stated that they will issue their final ruling by Dec 8th.

So acl65pilot is correct, that this whole thing will be over (except for the *****ing/whining) on Dec 8th.

PG

Quite true about that.

As soon as that is done, we will get to see the real plans for our future.

So what are they? You've proven to be in the know, with a pretty good accuracy rating on such matters. What are some of the options before us? Mostly good or mostly bad? What are you hearing?

Funny
 

You guys are funny.

I think it's safe to say that our categories are a bit out of whack. I'd guess some corrections to get the different categories back to proper staffing is in the cards. Outside of the 777 bid coming out, I wouldn't be surprised to see displacements. That's all a guess of course.

I thought this thread was about the Alaska/Delta announcement, not the Delta/NW SLI. I think there are plently of threads on here regarding that subject.

You will be assimilated, Debbie Downer.

J