I'm a little bit nervous about the Delta/NWA merger. My most used airports, MSP and MEM, are both NWA hubs. My miles are all with Delta though. On the one hand, I'm excited about the merger since it could impact those hubs.. mainly with the removal of Memphis. I'm not as worried about Memphis being lost as most since I know the Memphis hub is a major profit center for NWA - they sub contract a LOT of space out on their major flights to Fedex, from what I've read. I think Cincinnati would go away, and Memphis would stay. I had honestly thought the deal was going to take place very quickly, and that since we hadn't seen something within two weeks, this was dead. Now, it sounds like they could start cementing things next week. That said, The Guardian has an interesting article on the subject: Are you in favor of the merger? Do you think we'll see increased delays if the merger happens? Higher ticket prices? Or do you think this will strengthen the industry and add the "stability" some analysts predict? Personally, I don't want the merger to happen. While I oppose government bailouts, MN has pumped billions into NWA, and I would hate to see them lose the jobs in Eagan when the state has (unwisely, imo) given so much to the company.
Whatever they do, they need to do it without government bailouts, or go tits-up like the deserve. Their employees are not entitled to jobs beyond the financial viability of their employer. And "aluminumforge?" Wait. I get it. Aluminum. Like aircraft parts. Yeah, I'm out.
Yuck. Instead of one hugely sucky airline (NWA) and one moderately sucky airline (DL), I predict this will result in one supersized sucky airline.
I didn't realize NWA was worse than Delta. That takes some doing - of the few occasions I've had to fly Delta, not a one of the flights has been on time. Anyone else notice that airline mergers tend to make all parties worse off? US Airways and, well, any of the companies they merged with, but most recently America West comes to mind. AW used to be tolerable. Not anymore. On the plus side, that's meant I've been able to avoid PHX completely for about two years now, flying Southwest and Continental.
On my trip to Europe, not only were all of my Delta flights on time, both of the trans-Atlantic ones left early. And the United flights I took to New Orleans were, as always, a dream. Leg room makes or breaks any flight, and United had legroom to spare. Delta's legroom was pretty shit, but I was usually able to find an empty row to sit in that allowed me to sit with my legs wide open. Hell, on the way back from Madrid, I had an entire three-seat row to myself. Stretched out, got comfortable...
Back when I was in Superior Wisconsin, the Duluth Minnesota (they're across the bay from each other) TV stations were having orgasms about a Northwest Airbus facility that was going to go in the Iron Range. In fact I think I still have a Duluth phone book, circa 1989 that has a "NWA: Bringing Jobs to Minnesota" cover, in NWA colors instead of yellow. Of course the facility never happened and that was about the beginning of the end for Northwest. I've had progressively worse experiences with them since them. Except in August. The booking computers were down and somehow I wound up with an upgrade to first class for a Hawaii-Oregon flight.
I hope this doesn't happen. Delta and Northwest are both big players at Tampa and a merger would sharply reduce the competition that's holding down prices to the West Coast and makes it affordable to visit my family out there.
When United dropped Nashville as a hub, everyone feared prices would raise. While no one has picked them up as a hub, fairs have dropped over 15% since then - southwest is the biggest player there.
