JAL agrees tie-up deal with Delta:

On Saturday January 16, 2010, 4:07 am EST
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Airlines (JAL) has agreed on a tie-up with Delta Air Lines that will mean JAL joins the SkyTeam airline alliance, dropping its membership of the Oneworld alliance, a Japanese newspaper said on Saturday.

JAL and Delta agreed the deal in Tokyo on Friday, the Yomiuri newspaper said, and plan to complete the switch by April 2011.

As JAL heads for bankruptcy, Delta and American Airlines have been courting it with rival offers of financial aid, eager to gain access to routes to fast-growing Asian markets and to get a stronger foothold in Japan.

Japan's state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan (ETIC) has estimated that an alliance with Delta would give JAL an annual benefit of 17.2 billion yen ($189 million), three times more than expanded ties with American would offer.

Delta will continue to discuss with ETIC how much it will invest in JAL, the Yomiuri said. The two companies will apply to the U.S. government for anti-trust immunity by mid-February, the newspaper said.

 

Yay, we bought a bankrupted airline. I hope this works out.

 

There is an additional few comment about it here: http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/ma...elta-2510.html

 

Announced by a newspaper nothing official

 

What, you don't believe the press? Are you kidding me? hahah

 

so far we havent bought anything, didnt they turn down the money?

 

Yes, they turned DAL and AA's $$$. Their financing is NOT being provided by DAL, and we didn't buy anyone.

All they've agreed to is leaving Oneworld Alliance for SkyTeam.

 

I'm really surprised. I figured AA was going to get if if for nothing else, antitrust concerns with DAL/NWA's already huge Tokyo and Asian presence. Watch DAL turn all those Asian routes over to codeshare now.

 

Another BS Bailout... Good luck!

 

Really would suck to see all those routes flown via codeshare with planes with JAL written on the side, park a 10-20 widebodies, eliminate a few hundred high paying widebody jobs, have the effect ripple through the entire list, and furlough a few hundred off the bottom.

Though I don't know how realistic this is for DL-JAL, this situation is a very scary new threat to all of our jobs, and its not just hacking away at the bottom in order to "preserve" the good jobs this time.... we need to stop any chance of this happening before it gets out of control like it did with RJs.