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Joined: 17 Jun 2005
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Location: Carmel, IN

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Interesting to note that the Secretary of Transportation was "musing on the possibility of a Delta-Northwest merger" according to the WSJ this week. This of course comes after the DOT effectively quashed Skyteam's request to more closely integrate their alliance with additional codesharing.

But lots of us have mused on this merger in the past. It seems a decent fit, particularly for international strength. NW has a very strong Asian route network, with a hub at NRT. But NW has basically zero Latin America presence and average European presence. DL has a fairly good Latin American presence and a pitiful Asian route network. Their European route strenght is probably a little stronger than NW's.

But together, they have above-average European routes, strong Asian routes, and a decent third-place route structure to Latin America.

Domestically, they'd keep hubs at JFK, ATL, DTW, MSP, and possibly SLC. They'd keep the mini-hub at SEA and a strong presence at PDX. They might keep a vestige of the hub at CVG and the midwest focus cities here at IND, at MKE, and at Grand Rapids. I bet they leave all but a token amount of routes out of MEM but probably add back some service at MSY. They would probably keep DL's currently reduced level of service at MCO.

It would be an interesting combination, and it might only work with them both in bankruptcy. In that vein, it's much easier to combine union seniority lists and trim their combined staffing numbers.

The big question, no matter what happens to NW, is their fleet. They have got to get some new birds. Their current fleet is old and hodgepodge. If they were to merge with DL, then NW needs to go all-Boeing, as DL has basically done. Can you say 787?