Conflicting reports on Delta-Northwest merger talks

Based on the growing amount of press coverage, there’s little doubt now that Delta and Northwest Airlines are well into detailed discussions about a possible merger. There was some press speculation last week that an announcement of a deal could come as soon as this week. However, other reports indicated that there could still be some serious obstacles to overcome. For one thing, Northwest’s pilots have let it be known that they want a stake in any combination of Northwest and Delta – or Northwest and anyone else. A Northwest pilots’ union spokesman told Reuters that any merger agreement would have to provide “job security for our pilots, contract improvements, as well as an equity stake.” Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, citing company insiders, reported that the Delta-Northwest talks have been slowed down by differences over which company’s executives would assume the top management jobs in a combined airline. The newspaper noted that Delta CEO Richard Anderson – who formerly headed up management at Northwest – has said publicly that any Delta merger would have to keep the Delta name for the combined carrier, as well as an Atlanta headquarters. And the Detroit News noted that if Delta and Northwest merge, the decision as to which airline name and livery to keep could have an impact on customers’ perception of the overall quality of the carrier. “In the case of Delta and Northwest, neither have had the best reputations for customer service, on-time performance and other measures,” the newspaper observed.