Delta-Northwest merger pending?
Rumors were rampant that ailing bankrupt Delta and Northwest would merge, particularly after US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta brought up the possibility.
“I sometimes wonder whether or not…Delta and Northwest will come out as a merged carrier,” he told an audience of business executives in Shanghai.
He was also quoted as saying he was just “thinking out loud,” reported Reuters.
But he’s not the first industry expert to predict consolidation in the ailing airline industry.
The two carriers are the third and fourth largest in the US. Both filed for bankruptcy on the same day last September.
Neither airline would comment on the possibility, according to news accounts.
Analysts told the Cincinnati Enquirer that such a move was not likely.
“Two airlines in bankruptcy do not make one profitable airline outside of bankruptcy,” said Mike Miller of the Velocity Group, an airline consulting company.
Others commenting on the possibility pointed out that there was a mismatch of operating fleets. The two carriers have a combined fleet of more than 1,200 aircraft but the only plane they have in common is the Boeing 757, according to Reuters.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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