Once (and if) Delta and Northwest finally wrap up that merger they've been hyping, all 22,000 flight attendants at the new super-carrier will be wearing the same, Richard Tyler-designed duds.
Northwest cabin crews are probably looking forward to the change, even though it'll mean switching up their wardrobe: The carrier originally promised new uniforms after emerging from bankruptcy last year, but they never materialized.
As for other corporate stuff, Delta is prepping a quick shift in cocktail napkins, in-flight magazines and other logo gear to wipe the word Northwest from the post-merger carrier. If all goes to plan, NWA could be but a memory as soon as next summer.
Even profitable airlines are looking to merge these days! The latest to announce its intentions is Qantas, which raked in $843 million over the past year. Despite the gains, the Aussie airline suspects that fuel prices aren't about to plummet.
CEO Geoff Dixon, who's leaving his position in fewer than 100 days, says:
[Consolidation] is happening now: the Lufthansa-Swissair alliance, the KLM-Air France deal, BA in merger with Iberia, Delta and Northwest have announced talks.
And in the coming years, Australians in general and the authorities in Australia specifically are going to have to realise that, as strong as Qantas is and as big as it is, that it will have to have some form of consolidation.
Now that British Airways, American Airlines and three other carriers have announced their merger-which-isn't a merger, Virgin Atlantic is making a serious stink. After all, Richard Branson's baby holds just three percent of the slots at Heathrow, while BA and its newest pals control 47 percent of the landing rights at the airport.
This is actually the third time that British has tried to link up with American, but it's the first such attempt since the latest Open Skies provision was enacted, ostensibly to improve competition in the transatlantic market. But Branson says that hasn't yet happened--and won't if a tie-up between BA and AA is approved:
Open Skies has not delivered the greater competition
that was promised because Heathrow is full. BA/AA and Iberia would still be unacceptably
dominant, with nearly half of all of the slots at Heathrow, leaving competitors powerless
to take them on.
For his part, British Airways CEO Willie Walsh says his airline doesn't plan to give up any market share to appease regulators. The UK Times asked him if he'd consider giving up any slots, which can sell for as much as £20 million ($37 million) a pair. His response?
American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair and Royal Jordanian have formally announced their intent to merge, and they've put together a website to hype the tie-up. The spin-tastically named MoreTravelChoices.com even goes so far as to ask passengers to write to the Department of Transportation asking regulators to approve the deal.
The "joint business agreement" the five airlines have signed will have them cooperating on flights between North America and Europe. They also plan to expand their code sharing so you can earn even more increasingly worthless frequent flier miles. Though the agreement is being called a merger, all five carriers will remain legally separate and maintain their own identities--at least for now.
The deal still needs to be approved by the US government, which might be concerned not just with competition but also rules on foreign ownership of airlines. Predictably, Virgin Atlantic is opposed to the deal.
It's been a bit since we last heard from Delta and Northwest about their forthcoming tie-up. But today Delta announced that pilots for both airlines have agreed to a "joint contract" that will cover all 12,000 of them when the merger is completed "later this year."
According to the Associated Press, the pilots still haven't figured out a way to combine their seniority lists--which decide who flies where and how much they're paid--but will agree to binding arbitration if they can't make a deal.
Though European regulators have already approved the merger, antitrust G-men in the US still have to give it the OK, as do shareholders. That later group might be encouraged to give it a nod if they believe what one industry analyst said today: Delta could turn a profit in 2009 if oil stays at its current price of about $115 a barrel.
Despite our best guess, British Airwaysis getting hot and heavy with Iberia--though there's no word yet on shacking up with American. Most news outlets say the European duo is "holding talks," citing a news release posted on BA's website:
British Airways and Iberia are holding talks with a view to an all-share merger between the two companies. The negotiations are supported unanimously by the boards of both companies.
The British Airways and Iberia brands would be retained as part of a combined group.
It is expected that it will take several months to reach agreement on the terms of the merger and to finalise a joint business and integration plan for the combined group.
But the British Press Association says the deal is done, a pretty bold statement given how mergers tend to fall apart as talks proceed. Perhaps they know something everyone else doesn't?
It's definitely trendy these days for airlines to do a bit of merging. The latest one's taking place over the Spanish skies, and we highly approve because it's bringing together two low cost carriers that we actually like.
Spanish LCCs Clickair and Vueling Airlines have agreed to shack up together--with Vueling taking the top bunk. (Sadly, that means Clickair's cool name will disappear.) The two airlines have been negotiating details of the merger for months but just this week agreed that it's the best way to deal with rising costs.
The deal's not a sure thing quite yet: The Spanish authorities have to decide whether this merger goes against competition guidelines. We say go for it, in the hope that we'll get the perfect LCC with on-time flights and luxury leg room.
Southwest Airlines has been shopping for an international partner for some time now, a search that was likely accelerated earlier this year after ATA collapsed. Now the search is over: The low cost carrier just announced that it will initiate a code sharing agreement with WestJet by the end of 2009.
Though WestJet flies to a few destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean, a press release from the two airlines emphasizes the US-Canada link as the big part of this tie-up. The Canadian carrier also goes to Hawaii via Vancouver.
All that said, no specifics on routes or schedules have been released just yet, and the airlines also remind us that some of the details are subject to government approval. No wonder the deal with take 18 months to finalize.
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